Reparations
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Price:
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$19.95
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On Sale:
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16/03/2006
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Formats:
Hardcover
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They were boyhood best friends. One black, one white. But they’d
grown up and apart. Ray, the son of Africville’s last schoolmaster, had his
brief, shining moment in the ’70s as a black activist leader and is now a
jaded lawyer specializing in real estate deals and plea bargains. Ward, the son
of a blackballed fisherman, who had his own turn in the ’70s spotlight as the
province’s most promising young politician, has become a judge who worries
more about the state of his prostate than the justice of the state. Now, more
than 25 years after they fell in love with the same woman, the two men must face
each other again, this time in a courtroom. The explosive trial will force both
of them to finally confront the demons of their own pasts and reveal secrets
they’ve kept hidden, even from themselves.
Stephen Kimber, an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, has
written a page-turning legal thriller, a sophisticated tale fuelled by power,
sex, the politics of race and an impassioned quest for justice.
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Author Extras
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Critical Praise for
Reparations
"Canadians have waited too long for an energetic, ambitious, multi-layered novel about the historic black community of Africville in Halifax, but they need wait no longer. Stephen Kimber has delivered, big time.Reparations is an entertaining, provocative legal thriller about power and race relations in Nova Scotia. Reparations is like open-heart surgery: bold, outrageous, and dangerous. Told with insight and wit,Reparations resurrects one of Canada's most important but neglected stories -- the life of a poor but vibrant black community in Halifax, and the social fallout resulting from its destruction."
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Lawrence Hill, author of Any Known Blood
"Stephen Kimber has woven a difficult story about racism and power politics in Nova Scotia with exceptional skill and sensitivity. Reparations is an important literary voyage into a largely unexplored region of the Canadian experience. It reads as fiction, but resonates as history."
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Linden MacIntyre
Reader Reviews from First Look
This book was so interesting I could barely put it down. It really relates to humanity and how race and academic differences can pull a friendship apart. I really enjoyed reading something that could hit so close to home, not only geographically but also mentally. I would encourage anyone to read this book as a self help in showing how our blind nature and secretiveness can tear us and our family apart.
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Amanda (Saint John, NB)
This book was so interesting I could barely put it down. It really relates to humanity and how race and academic differences can pull a friendship apart. I really enjoyed reading something that could hit so close to home, not only geographically but also mentally. I would encourage anyone to read this book as a self help in showing how our blind nature and secretiveness can tear us and our family apart.
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Amanda (Saint John, NB)
I enjoyed the book immensely. It gave me new insight into politics and race relations in Nova Scotia, in the 70's, that I was unaware of. I am looking forward to reading more of Mr. Kimber's books.
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Janice (Lorette, MB)
Reparations is a first rate courtroom drama that delivers everything it promised and more. I enjoyed reading about race relations in Canada during the 60's and 70's. I found the friendship between Ray and Ward genuine... Secrets, politics and courtroom drama bring their story to a climatic ending that won't disappoint readers.
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Mary Ellen (Brampton, ON)
Obviously, when Stephen Kimber named his latest book, he intended the title, Reparations, to foreshadow the conclusion of his story. Hence, as I began reading, I was consciously seeking some nefarious sequences worthy of recompense. I was not disappointed.
Kimber’s remarkable integration of literary devices and agility pivoting between the present and past against a backdrop of racism and political corruption in Atlantic Canada ensured that no element of his tale was predictable. Yet, the suspense was only a portion of Kimber’s brilliance. His meticulously honed characters and social commentary elicit empathy and comprehension even when their deeds should evoke revulsion. Reparations is most definitely a novel which implores the reader to heed Kimber’s messages long after the book has been concluded. I know that I will.
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Patti (Red Deer, AB)
This was such an amazing read. It had me hooked in the beginning and I couldn't put it down when I got within the last 100 pages - staying up into the wee hours. I enjoyed the complexity of the characters and how they flowed into each other. Stephen Kimber took some hard topics (racism, politics) and wrote about them with grace and style. I admired the research that Mr. Kimber did in order to write this book. My favorite part was the theme pertaining to race relations. This is surely a winner written by a winning author. My first book by this author but definitely not my last.
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Shelley (Abbotsford, BC)
An immensely satisfying read, I was drawn in from beginning to end. A riveting search for truth and justice in an atmosphere of political maneuverings and racial unrest, Stephen Kimber weaves a noble tale of two lives. A book I would recommend highly.
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Laura (Toronto, ON)
Reparations is an unforgettable first work of fiction by Stephen Kimber. It is a detailed legal thriller that meanders through time. The characters stick with the reader making this book hard to put down. It is a fascinating blend of history and expert storytelling. An excellent, meaty, quality read!
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Patricia (Kanata, ON)
Bravo! This was an incredible read. Stephen Kimber can add story-teller to his list of accomplishments. The reader cannot help but both love and hate the main characters simultaneously. Kimber transports his audience back to a time of racial inequality that most Canadians believe existed only in the southern United States. However, despite all this the novels character Ward Justice re-affirms our faith in the human condition in his attempt to right the wrongs he has comitted against his one time childhood friend Carter. In the final pages of the novel I believe a poignant message is put forth; in the end we all leave this world, this life the same way. Death, unlike man is objective.
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Anastasia (Thronhill, ON)
Reparations by Stephen Kimber is a great page turner! I thoroughly enjoyed his take of evacuation of Black Nova Scotians form Africville. I learned a great deal about this horrible time in Nova Scotia's history and its repercussions today. Kimber uses a fictional court trial in present day Nova Scoita to explore this period of history. I found the characters to be believable and they captured my heart. The twists and turns of the plot kept me reading and guessing. It is also a very interesting insight into Maritime politics of this era. I think that Mr. Kimber has captured the times and the people of Nova Scotia admirably!
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Donald (Saint John, NB)
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Reparations
Ray and Ward grew up best friends—one black, one white—in Halifax’s Africville district. Now they face each other again, this time in a courtroom as lawyer and judge in an explosive trial revolving around the three-decades-old expropriation and demolition of Africville. The trial...
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