Muskoka - (Essential Prose) by Julian Samuel (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A young man down on his luck meets the woman of his dreams in an adult education course. But this is no ordinary male fantasy: the man is a Pakistani-Canadian artist with a treatable recurrent cancer; the young lady is an Indigenous princess just returned from art school in Europe to her father's glass summer palace in Muskoka. This romantic comedy, set in mid-Toronto and on Lake Rosseau, plays with the intersection of Indigenous, settler, and immigrant success stories against the background of mortality and the stars.

Review Quotes

Muskoka, Julian Samuel's short new novel, takes in the deadly serious matters of colonization, displacement, ramped-up privilege and performative justice in Canada--but in the refreshing shape of a left-field rom-com that bristles with edgy humour. Centred around the lovestruck and quizzical Mohammed, the result is a prickly yet touching read that's stuffed with laughs and provocations. Highly recommended.

--Hein Marais, author of The Job Crisis in South Africa and Beyond: The Case for a Universal Basic Income

About the Author

Julian Samuel is a documentary filmmaker, writer, and a fine art painter. He was born in Lahore, Pakistan and has lived in the United Kingdom, Peterborough (Ont.), Montreal, and now Toronto.