Divisadero

Set initially in 1970s Northern California, the story begins with a “family” consisting of a father, his two daughters (Anna and Claire) and a young boy (Coop) taken in to work the farm. A shocking act of violence shatters their lives and sends each of them on separate journeys. Anna flees to France and art-research; Claire becomes a lawyer in San Francisco; Coop drifts into gambling and the shadows of luck and risk. Meanwhile, in France the narrative threads out to include a French writer’s retreat and the residual echoes of war and exile. 

Ondaatje writes with the precision of a poet: shifting perspectives, fragmented time and place, with moments of beauty and rupture. As one reviewer wrote, “It is a book to savour slowly and become immersed in…”

Condition: Very Good