Original Prin
CBC Books | | Posted: July 23, 2018 6:28 PM | Last Updated: December 20, 2018
Randy Boyagoda
Following a cancer diagnosis, 40-year-old Prin vows to become a better man and a better Catholic. He's going to spend more time with his kids and better time with his wife, care for his recently divorced and aging parents and also expand his cutting-edge research into the symbolism of the seahorse in Canadian literature.
But when his historic college in downtown Toronto faces a shutdown and he meets with the condominium developers ready to take it over — including a foul-mouthed young Chinese entrepreneur and Wende, his sexy ex-girlfriend from graduate school — Prin hears the voice of God. Bewildered and divinely inspired, he goes to the Middle East, hoping to save both his college and his soul. Wende is coming, too.
The first book in a planned trilogy, Original Prin is an entertaining and essential novel about family life, faith, temptation, and fanaticism. It's a timely story about timeless truths, told with wise insight and great humour, confirming Randy Boyagoda's place as one of Canada's funniest and most provocative writers. (From Biblioasis)
- Randy Boyagoda on his favourite Avenger and the epic poem he's been reading continuously for 2 years
- Shazia Hafiz Ramji's favourite Canadian book of 2018: Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda
From the book
He didn't like the crowd, beefy men in beards and Green Bay Packer caps taking pictures of Schlaffler with phones fitted out in thick rubber cases. The few women in attendance had, in general, no facial hair, and their cases were pink rather than jet black or black and dump-truck yellow; otherwise, they looked and weighed about the same. Prin could say he wanted to leave because he knew his wife and sisters-in-law wouldn't approve, but he knew his nephews would counter that their dads would have let them stay. Their adolescent American voices, golden, pure, and cracking like the Liberty Bell, would have tolled hard in his ears, his professorial, sonless, ethnic Toronto ears. Come on, Prin, be a normal guy for once.
From Original Prin by Randy Boyagoda ©2018. Published by Biblioasis.