Johnny Delivers by Wayne Ng
CBC Books | Posted: August 13, 2024 7:07 PM | Last Updated: August 16
A novel exploring family, love, and hardship in 1970s Toronto.
Eighteen-year-old Johnny Wong's dead-end life consists of delivering Chinese food and holding his chaotic family together in Toronto. When his sweet but treacherous Auntie, the mahjong queen, calls in their family debt, he fears the family will lose the Red Pagoda restaurant and break apart.
Invoking the spirit of Bruce Lee and in cahoots with his stoner friend Barry, Johnny tries to save his family by taking up a life of crime delivering weed with a side of egg rolls. He chases his first love, but his hands are already full with his emotionally distant mother, his dream-crushing father, and his reckless, sardonic little sister.
As he fights to stay ahead of his Auntie, sordid family secrets unfold. With lives on the line, the only way out is an epic mahjong battle. While Johnny is on a mission to figure out who he is and what he wants, he must learn that help can come from within and that our heroes are closer than we think.
Dripping with 1970s nostalgia, Johnny Delivers is a gritty and humorous standalone sequel to the much-loved and award-winning Letters From Johnny. (From Guernica Editions)
Wayne Ng is a novelist, travel writer and social worker from Toronto, who now lives in Ottawa. His previous books include The Family Code which was shortlisted for the Guernica Prize, Letters from Johnny won the Best Crime Novella at the Crime Writers of Canada Awards, and Finding the Way: A Novel of Lao Tzu.