Synopses & Reviews
"Kicking the Sky dares to tell the story about the messy dark side of a big city through the clear eyes of a twelve-year-old boy . . . A courageous novel." --Jim Lynch, author of Truth Like the Sun
It was 1977 when a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jaques, was brutally murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, twelve-year-old Antonio Rebelo explores his neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys along with his rapscallion friends.
Review
"Kicking the Sky dares to tell the story about the messy dark side of a big city through the clear eyes of a twelve-year-old boy teetering on the fence between observer and victim . . . A courageous novel." --Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide and Truth Like the Sun
Review
"These heartfelt, intertwining stories depict the immigration of Antonio and his father, Manuel, to Canada, and deserve a key place in immigration literature. A complete success." --Library Journal
"De Sa's well-realized coming-of-age story is distinguished by its setting in a traditional Portuguese community on the brink of change." --Booklist
"[An] intricate coming-of-age debut novel." --Publishers Weekly
"Impressive . . . [De Sa] has given us a beguiling coming-of-age story--harked back to an event that shocked the country and had massive repercussions--and at the same time managed to beautifully capture a community and an era." --The Toronto Globe and Mail
"Rich and compulsively readable . . . A novel that, like most of the good ones, is funny, heart-breaking and humane." --The Toronto Star
"Kicking the Sky bridges its polarized worlds, staying true to the humanity in each. It's one of the best things fiction can do." --The National Post (Canada)
"A coming-of-age story with a vengeance--not just an individual, but an entire community--Kicking the Sky also captures a small but enduring turn of the historical screw." --Maclean's
"Kicking the Sky dares to tell the story about the messy dark side of a big city through the clear eyes of a twelve-year-old boy teetering on the fence between observer and victim . . . A courageous novel." --Jim Lynch, author of Truth Like the Sun
"The intensity and fragility of boys on the cusp of adolescence is vividly captured, as is the portrait of a community whose insularity is both its strength and its weakness." --Shyam Selvadurai, author of The Hungry Ghosts
Synopsis
In 1977, a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jacques, was brutally raped and murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, Antonio Rebelo, the twelve-year-old narrator of this story, explores his Portuguese neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys, along with his rapscallion friends. The boys develop a curious relationship with a charismatic, modern-day Fagin, a fledgling master over an amoral world of young hustlers, theft, and drugs.
Synopsis
It was 1977 when a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jacques, was brutally raped and murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, Antonio Rebelo, the twelve-year-old narrator of this story, explores his Portuguese neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys, along with his rapscallion friends. The boys develop a curious relationship with a charismatic, modern-day Fagin, a fledgling master over an amoral world of young hustlers, theft, and drugs.
Synopsis
It was 1977 when a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jaques, was brutally murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, twelve-year-old Antonio Rebelo explores his neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys along with his rapscallion friends.
Synopsis
It was 1977 when a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jaques, was brutally murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, twelve-year-old Antonio Rebelo explores his neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys along with his rapscallion friends.
Synopsis
"Kicking the Sky dares to tell the story about the messy dark side of a big city through the clear eyes of a twelve-year-old boy . . . A courageous novel." --Jim Lynch, author of Truth Like the Sun
It was 1977 when a shoeshine boy, Emanuel Jaques, was brutally murdered in Toronto. In the aftermath of the crime, twelve-year-old Antonio Rebelo explores his neighborhood's dark garages and labyrinthine back alleys along with his rapscallion friends.
About the Author
Anthony De Sa, author of the story collection Barnacle Love, grew up in Toronto’s Portuguese community. He graduated from University of Toronto, did his postgraduate work at Queen&