Six Metres of Pavement

Submitted by dmacdonell on Wed, 2010-03-31 23:54

Six Metres of Pavement

By Farzana Doctor

978-1-55488-767-5
February 2011
384pp, Paperback
$22.99 CAD

Shelve it

It’s heartfelt work about characters who come to treat their worst scars with due respect and who learn to abide in chosen families who love them. It speaks with a compassionate voice to a truth that surrounds us.

Carolesbooktalk

Ismail Boxwala, an ultimately good man haunted by a horrible mistake, provides the focal point of Doctor's moving second novel in which she examines with crystalline clarity the plight of this gentle, middle-aged Indian immigrant living in Toronto.

Publishers Weekly

I laughed and cried as I read Six Metres of Pavement and followed Ismail and Celia — endearing, brave, and foolish characters who have to live with the irreparable and irreversible. Farzana Doctor blends cross-cultural empathy with wisdom, and shows us paths to wholeness. Read this delightful, warm guide to remaking and choosing your family.

Shauna Singh Baldwin, author of What the Body Remembers, The Tiger Claw and We Are Not in Pakistan.

If you’re looking for believable characters, look no further than Farzana Doctor’s fiction. She has a gift for reality-based situations and conveys anxiety and passion in a story that turns into a real page-turner.

NOW Magazine

Ismail Boxwala made the worst mistake of his life one summer morning twenty years ago: he forgot his baby daughter in the back seat of his car. After his daughter's tragic death, he struggles to continue living. A divorce, years of heavy drinking, and sex with strangers only leave him more alone and isolated.

But Ismail's story begins to change after he reluctantly befriends two women: Fatima, a young queer activist kicked out of her parents' home; and Celia, his grieving Portuguese-Canadian neighbour who lives just six metres away. A slow-simmering romance develops between Ismail and Celia. Meanwhile, dangers lead Fatima to his doorstep. Each makes complicated demands of him, ones he is uncertain he can meet.