Carrianne Leung's book That Time I Loved You is on the Canada Reads 2019 longlist. The final five books and the panellists defending them will be revealed on Jan. 31, 2019.

The 2019 debates are happening on March 25-28, 2019 and will be hosted by Ali Hassan.

Carrianne Leung is an educator and fiction writer from Toronto. Her debut novel The Wondrous Woo was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award. The Wondrous Woo follows Miramar Woo, who must help her family stay together after her father's untimely death.

Her latest book is That Time I Loved You. Inspired by her childhood in Scarborough, an east-end Toronto suburb, the book features a series of interconnected stories that peel back the polished veneer of suburban life to reveal the tragedy and dysfunction lurking under the surface. That Time I Loved You is on the Canada Reads 2019 longlist.

"The Scarborough that I moved to was brand new. There were lots of new subdivisions and schools. We had immigrated from Hong Kong and I remember my mom and dad were excited about this notion of having land — land being our tiny backyard and lawn. We were very much ensconced in the middle class. My parents would disdain of me going downtown to Chinatown, which was seen as seedy. We would talk about what the white folks do and would observe them and their barbecues.

"The first time I was invited to a friends house for dinner, it was interesting that their meat and vegetables did not touch each other on the plate. Those were startling realizations at that time. It was very much an orientation. As a writer, everything directs me back to my memories of Scarborough."