Canada Reads 2020 winner
Friday, Jul 24, 2020 at 6:58pm
After a week of fantastic debates, this year's Canada Reads winner has been decided!
Amanda Brugel successfully championed Samra Habib's We Have Always Been Here to be crowned the "the book to bring Canada into focus".
We Have Always Been Here is an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality as it chronicles Habib's own life: her childhood in Pakistan, her religious persecution, her arrival as a refugee to Canada, and her coming out as a proud queer Muslim woman.
Congratulations to Brugel for her success in the debates and to Habib for writing such a phenomenal book!
To find out more about the 2020 Canada Reads, visit CBC's website.
| Categories: Awards, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Canadian Lit |
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We Have Always Been Here
- Samra Habib 
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CANADA READS 2020 WINNER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 EDNA STAEBLER AWARD FOR CREATIVE NON-FICTION
NATIONAL BESTSELLER
2020 LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD WINNER
ONE OF BOOK RIOT'S 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL QUEER BOOKS OF ALL TIME
How do you find yourself when the world tells you that you don't exist?
Samra Habib has spent most of their life searching for the safety to be themself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, they faced regular threats from Islamic extremists who believed the small, dynamic sect to be blasphemous. From their parents, they internalized the lesson that revealing their identity could put them in grave danger.
When their family came to Canada as refugees, Samra encountered a whole new host of challenges: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty, and an arranged marriage. Backed into a corner, their need for a safe space--in which to grow and nurture their creative, feminist spirit--became dire. The men in Samra's life wanted to police them, the women in their life had only shown them the example of pious obedience, and their body was a problem to be solved.
So begins an exploration of faith, art, love, and queer sexuality, a journey that takes them to the far reaches of the globe to uncover a truth that was within them all along. A triumphant memoir of forgiveness and family, both chosen and not, We Have Always Been Here is a rallying cry for anyone who has ever felt out of place and a testament to the power of fearlessly inhabiting one's truest self.
