Emancipation Day

Winner of the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award
Longlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Named the 2017 One Book One Community selection for Waterloo Region
A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2013
A CBC Best Book of 2013

“An engaging look at when and where true co-existence and polite tolerance dissolve into prejudice and power struggle. That’s a fully contemporary issue, and one that’s entirely Canadian.” —The Globe and Mail

“A startling book, one that will likely be celebrated come awards season.” —National Post

“A stellar debut. This literary novel is set in the heart of the big-band era. . . . The music swings. So does the story. Though Grady portrays the complexities of race and racial politics, there’s nothing overtly didactic here. It’s a novel of ideas that succeeds precisely because it’s also a good story.” —Winnipeg Free Press

“Grady’s novel reads with the velvety tempo of the jazz music of its day. Like a deft conductor, he seamlessly brings in his main characters’ voices in alternating chapters throughout the novel. . . . For Jack, the eternal dilemma is whether we can successfully carve out a future if we reject our past. The answer occupies a distinctly grey area, one Wayne Grady fearlessly explores to expose heated race relations and the masks we all assume.” —Chatelaine

“A masterwork of storytelling examining race relations, denial and misconceptions, and what they do to three generations of a Canadian family. Grady does not tie things up in a neat bundle for the reader here. Like life itself, Emancipation Day is gritty, messy, surprising and poignant. It is an unvarnished look at life in Canada in the middle of the last century and the profound influence our thoughts and actions have on the lives of others.” —Telegraph Journal

“Grady—a skilled, careful and knowledgeable writer—does not miss a step. . . . Grady’s work is an absorbing, entertaining and informative look at love, marriage, men at war, family dynamics and, especially, race and racism in Canadian history.” —Literary Review of Canada
 
“A haunting tale of shame, denial, racism and the intricacy of family relationships.” —The News (UK)
 
“A haunting, memorable, believable portrait of a man so desperate to deny his heritage that he imperils his very soul.” —Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes
 
“A brave book to challenge every reader’s thinking on race, family, fear and love. Profound and compelling.” —Annabel Lyon, author of The Golden Mean and The Sweet Girl
 
“Wayne Grady has created character out of life, out of love, out of recognition and sympathy. The characters are not to be missed.” —Linda Spalding, author of The Purchase
 
“This finely wrought novel navigates the complexities of love, race and loyalties of choice. With a deft hand, Grady convinces us that whatever appearances may suggest, nothing is ever black and white.” —Vincent Lam, author of The Headmaster’s Wager and Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
 
“Wayne Grady’s masterful novel is a compelling story about secrets and shame, denial and self-discovery, racism and love that goes deeper than skin deep. Grady shows how the ties of family bind and also set us free. This novel is unforgettable.” —Lisa Moore, author of Flannery and Something for Everyone