black_girl_reading 's review for:

The Lost Sister by Andrea Gunraj

5.0

---

The Lost Sister by Andrea Gunraj was everything. This book, which weaves two different racialized narratives, that of Paula, a black woman who grew up in the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children in the 1940’s (a very real place one of the author’s close friends grew up in - she writes in the acknowledgements about the non-fiction book that details his experiences, and also about writing this book with his permission to honour him), and later about Alisha, a child of South Asian Guyanese parents whose sister is murdered in the late 90’s, and who comes to know Paula during this time of loss. Gunraj states in her introduction to the book that she wants to recognize and celebrate the love that can be built between racialized communities and this book does this, while also telling two powerful and compelling narratives. This book examines loss, familial separation, familial expectations, grief, guilt, secrets, and trying to grow into someone healthier than the person circumstances raised you to be. It is really a painful and beautiful story and a powerful acknowledgement of the history of oppression of people in this country, both past and present, and how it is really within our own communities that we can seek and find healing, particularly when institutions and bureaucracies provide just the opposite. This book also acknowledges Indigenous land, the real anti-Black racism in other communities of colour, and that we are not post-racial at all. I encourage folks to buy this book, because it is excellent, and also, because ALL of the proceeds of this novel go into a scholarship fund for descendants of the survivors of the Nova Scotia School for Coloured Children, which, I just cannot say enough about the fact that Gunraj, who also works with homeless youth, made the choice to use her art to try to address some of that historical wrong. Cue tears. Thank you @netgalley for this ARC, opinions are my own.