{"id":32416,"date":"2023-01-05T19:37:46","date_gmt":"2023-01-06T00:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32416"},"modified":"2023-01-12T17:20:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-12T22:20:02","slug":"finding-edward-picked-by-library-for-one-book-one-aurora-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/finding-edward-picked-by-library-for-one-book-one-aurora-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFinding Edward\u201d picked by Library for One Book One Aurora 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you don\u2019t yet know the name of Cyril Rowntree, you\u2019re likely to hear his name on the lips of many Aurora residents this year as One Book One Aurora (OBOA) gets underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding Edward, the acclaimed and award-winning novel by Sheila Murray, has been tapped by the Aurora Public Library (APL) for OBOA 2023, a library-led initiative that aims to get all of Aurora reading from the same page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout this year, free copies of the book will be distributed throughout the community for local readers to experience the remarkable story of Cyril, a Jamaican man who migrates to Toronto in 2012, and \u201cbegins to navigate his way through the implications of being racialized in a challenging new land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As more people take in the story, which sees Cyril drawn to a mysterious suitcase of photos and letters from the 1920s and undertaking a very different journey as a result, community partners are curating programs over the next 10 months centred around the themes contained within its pages \u2013 and this is a prospect that is nothing short of exciting for author Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am thrilled,\u201d Murray told The Auroran. \u201cIt\u2019s lovely to think so many people in Aurora will be sharing the book, their experiences with the book. Obviously, it\u2019s a different experience for every reader and that\u2019s very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The daughter of a Black Jamaican father and a White English mother, Murray was born and raised in England before moving to Canada with her family when she was 17. With a background in journalism, she\u2019s always had a keen interest in Black History in Canada, \u201cwhich I knew was rich,\u201d and this was one of the starting points to penning Finding Edward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think I have never understood to what extent across this country Blacks have been present and for how long,\u201d she says. \u201cMy curiosity about that was what inspired the notion of having this person, born in the 20s, who could show us in many ways how everything changes but nothing changes. Has it always been the experience of Black people and people identified as Black being a challenge in this country?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy parents retired [in Jamaica] and I spent a fair bit of time there knowing some incredible young people who have made the journey to Canada and to other places full of determination and determined to succeed once they arrive. Then there are an enormous number of hoops they have to jump through. Their resilience and tenacity always impressed me so much and that\u2019s what partly led me to think about looking at this through the eyes of a younger person. I didn\u2019t want to tell a historical story where people might be able to say, \u2018All of that happened in the past and that has very little to do with what we experience now.\u2019 I very much wanted to show what happened in the past is, in part, what we continue to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since its publication last year, readers have been enthralled by the experience of Finding Edward, and it has racked up numerous accolades along the way, including being shortlisted for the 2022 Governor General\u2019s Awards. While she says that kind of recognition has been \u201cfabulous,\u201d what\u2019s particularly rewarding is the feedback from readers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really moving is the comments I hear from people who are reading the book. I didn\u2019t know who my readers would be when the book was published. It was an open discovery and it turns out that there are all sorts of people and all sorts of ages, Black and White, and various others in between. I think probably the most moving comments have been things like, \u2018That was my experience.\u2019 They can look at Cyril\u2019s experience and say that\u2019s exactly how they felt and that is very gratifying. I heard from people who are now in their 70s for whom the Edward story had real resonance. Even though they are straight White men, they really responded to Edward\u2019s experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there is any discomfort in the discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As people make their way through Finding Edward and making their own discoveries along the way, Murray says she hopes the reader leaves with a better understanding of the experience of a person newly arrived to this country \u2013 \u201csomebody who doesn\u2019t necessarily look like them, although there are all sorts of nuances there\u201d \u2013 and continue the dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the things I would like people to talk about is what difference does it make when you feel you belong, or how do you feel you belong in your community? What makes that sense of belonging for you? Consider others who are finding that place is a lot harder. I think one of the things that certainly has been written in reviews is Cyril\u2019s experience of loneliness is very strong and I think perhaps that many, many of us feel loneliness and also these days with all that happens in the world and the way our culture is changing\u2026 I hope there\u2019s a really universal connection there that people could talk about. Just the overall piece which is look at all of the Black history across this country and how long it has been here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of us have learned a great deal of the experience with Indigenous people is how little was broadly known. There are things that happened which should have been part of the Canadian narrative from the beginning of those relationships but have been sort of wiped out of history. There\u2019s another question: Why do we wipe some of these histories away, and is it important to know? How do we know ourselves as Canadians through the experience of other people in this country and ultimately for a new world country that is built on immigration? Those are questions I think everybody can enjoy answering from their own perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on this year\u2019s One Book One Aurora selection, visit onebookoneaurora.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you don\u2019t yet know the name of Cyril Rowntree, you\u2019re likely to hear his name on the lips of many Aurora residents this year as One Book One Aurora (OBOA) gets underway. Finding Edward, the acclaimed and award-winning novel by Sheila Murray, has been tapped by the Aurora Public Library (APL) for OBOA 2023, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8qQ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-23 02:51:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2023-01-05-01.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}