• Age: 16
• Grade: 11

In this new collection of stories, F.B. André explores what it means to "belong." Frequently his stories portray individuals involved in mixed relationships, of different cultures and races or backgrounds - of people struggling to feel at home with themselves and their situations. André depicts characters newly arrived in Canada as well as those who have called Canada home for generations. With his wonderful ear for dialogue, André allows us to listen in on things that are deeply felt,and we are reminded that the unsaid often reveals more than that which is said.

In "What the Future Holds," the wife of a graduate student from Korea, "would like to give her baby the gift of birthright: to grow up knowing that there is always the possibility of a door that opens out onto a new life." But in her new marriage that doorway is shrinking ever smaller, and she will have to find a way to widen it. Often André finds a sense of black humour in his situations as when a woman's dying request is that both her husband and ex-husband join together to spread her ashes.

And in the title story, "What Belongs," André depicts a contemporary researcher interviewing a descendant of one of the boatload of Afro-Americans that Governor James Douglas invited to settle in British Columbia in 1858. Moving backwards and forwards from the present to the past, André asks, When does a place become home? When can you stake your claim? When does it become automatic that we are from here, that we belong?

F.B. André was born in Trinidad, West Indies in 1955 and immigrated to Canada in 1971 as a student. His first ten years in Canada were spent in Ontario before he moved west to Alberta and then on to BC where he currently lives. He has worked at diverse jobs&151:bartender, gold miner, factory worker, café owner and program administrator&151;and these many experiences have enriched his writing. His first book of short stories, The Man Who Beat the Man, was published in 2000 by NeWest Press.What Belongs is his second collection.

F.B. Andre's profile page

What Belongs

In this collection of short stories, the characters are a mix of races and ethnicities. Although many of the stories in the collection focus on people quite removed from adolescent sensibilities (people buying a house, going through a divorce, etc.), there are other pieces that could easily engage students. The characters are adults in adult situations. They face many emotional dilemmas—from untangling the mess left by an apparent double-suicide to dealing with a man in a coma who has two lovers by his bedside. Thrown into the mix are questions about arranged marriages, racial discrimination and illegitimate births. One of the pieces deals with the “mixed” children of BC’s Governor James Douglas. All of the stories are set in BC, many of them in and around Victoria.

Trinidad-born André has lived in Canada since 1971.

Caution: Some situations and language could be considered offensive.