Scarborough : a novel

In Scarborough, a low-income urban neighbourhood, three kids struggle to rise above poverty, abuse, and a system that consistently fails them. The adults in their lives either rise to the occasion or fall by the wayside; together, they make up a troubled yet inspired community that refuses to be undone."In Catherine Hernandez's debut, Scarborough, this landscape comes to life, populated by children whose parents, as with mine, didn't relax because they were in survival mode, trying to build a boat while they were sailing it... Scarborough, recently nominated for a Toronto Book Award, is an ambitious collection of intertwined stories. The characters' lives intersect in the company of Hina Hassani, a young social worker tasked with community outreach. Her very job is the manifestation of institutional good intentions, or, in less charitable terms, the white-saviour complex. (Hernandez herself clearly has no time for bureaucrats, the best example being Hina's boss, an out-of-touch woman who works downtown and never visits the centre but fills her missives with microaggressions, ill-fitting advice and an e-mail signature that enthusiastically quotes Oprah.)" - The Globe & Mail "A poignant, multi-voiced novel about life in the inner city. Scarborough is a low-income, culturally diverse neighbourhood east of Toronto, the fourth largest city in North America; like many inner-city communities, it suffers under the weight of poverty, drugs, crime, and urban blight. Scarborough the novel employs a multitude of voices to tell the story of a tight-knit neighbourhood under fire: among them, Victor, a black artist harassed by the police; Winsum, a West Indian restaurant owner struggling to keep it together; and Hina, a Muslim school worker who witnesses first-hand the impact of poverty on education. And then there are the three kids who work to rise above a system that consistently fails them: Bing, a gay Filipino boy who lives under the shadow of his father's mental illness; Sylvie, Bing's best friend, a Native girl whose family struggles to find a permanent home to live in; and Laura, whose history of neglect by her mother is destined to repeat itself with her father. Scarborough has already received recognition as winner of the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop Emerging Writers Award in 2015, and finalist for the 2016 $50,000 Half the World Global Literati Award for best unpublished manuscript. It offers a raw yet empathetic glimpse into a troubled community that locates its dignity in unexpected places: a neighbourhood that refuses to be undone."-- Provided by publisher In Scarborough, a low-income urban neighborhood, three kids struggle to rise above poverty, abuse, and a system that consistently fails them. The adults in their lives either rise to the occasion or fall by the wayside; together, they make up a troubled yet inspired community that refuses to be undone. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure. In Scarborough, a low-income urban neighborhood, three kids struggle to rise above poverty, abuse, and a system that consistently fails them. The adults in their lives either rise to the occasion or fall by the wayside; together, they make up a troubled yet inspired community that refuses to be undone.