His novels offer up a story of Scarborough that admit 'challenges, but tell that bigger story of life and vitality that you don’t always see in headlines.' If I’m honest, I always wanted to write a story that evoked the complexities of growing up young and Black in Scarborough.Throughout my entire life growing up in Scarborough and returning to it even as a young adult, I always felt so discomforted by the negative stories of Scarborough that would circulate in the newspapers and tabloids and sometimes by word of mouth, among people who really didn’t know Scarborough that well. This area is known for its immigrant heavy population and has been sometime stigmatized by a reputation for crime, although statistics do not support this perception. Recurring themes and cultural contexts Ĭhariandy's novels are set in Scarborough, an eastern region of Toronto, Ontario. In his work, he explores the truest meaning of origins and birthplace for immigrants and their children growing up in another part of the world but still belonging to another.Ĭhariandy's family includes his wife and two children: a son and a daughter.

He lives in Vancouver and teaches in the department of English at Simon Fraser University. Ĭhariandy has a Master of Arts from Carleton University and a PhD from York University. His surname represents his Tamil and South Indian origins from his father's side. His father is from South Asian descent, whereas his mother is African. He was born in 1969 in Scarborough, Ontario.

Biography Ĭhariandy's parents immigrated to Canada from Trinidad in the 1960s. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award. David John Chariandy (born in 1969 in Scarborough, Ontario) is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a professor of English literature at Simon Fraser University.

David chariandy