Big Town is Malone’s fourth novel. Random House published his last two; I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin and Miss Elva, which was shortlisted for the Dartmouth fiction award , and Nimbus — who’ve been getting high praise from their new authors — published this one.
Synopsis for Big Town: A Novel of Africville:
It’s summer, 1963, and Early and Toby dream of building an opera house in Africville, a black community struggling with poverty and illiteracy tethered to the north shore of Halifax, considered by many, a festering sore. But to simple-minded Early Okander, brightly painted houses sprinkled haphazardly across train tracks, it’s poetry. Both Early and Chub find refuge from abuse and intolerance around the kitchen table of Toby’s grandpa Aubrey. As Toby’s health fails and Early’s abusive and reckless father evades the police, the city’s bulldozers begin levelling Africville house by house, its residents carted off in the back of garbage trucks, Aubrey clings to hope until Chub discovers that her family is instrumental in the expulsion, and her rebellion leads to a simple act of kindness with tragic consequences. Gone since 1970, Africville was a community of almost 400 people for over 150 years. To this day, its demise haunts Canada as one of the most notorious cases of government sanctioned racial discrimination. Big Town is an unforgettable account of a community in crisis and the remarkable spirit that persists in the face of adversity.
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Listen to a nice, funny introduction to the novel’s conception, history, and story, as well as the book trade in general, right from the author himself:
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