Jody Mitic defends Nostalgia by M.G. Vassanji for Canada Reads

Our nation's battle of the books, Canada Reads, is back March 27. Here on q we're sitting down with each of the five panellists to hear why their literary choices deserve the top prize.

This week, retired Canadian Armed Forces Master Corporal and current Ottawa city councillor, Jody Mitic, defends Nostalgia by M.G. Vassanji. Mitic explains that Nostalgia revolves around a distant future where humans have figured out how to keep their physical selves alive forever; it's their minds that begin to decay. 

Mitic says that something about Nostalgia resonated with him: "When I got blown up in Afghanistan and lost both feet, I lost my entire identity, at least that's how I felt at he time. I had no plans to be anything else and in this book, some people are forcibly reprogrammed; a lot of people chose to be reprogrammed," Mitic tells Tom.

— Produced by Jean Kim