The author Marjorie Celona discusses her critically acclaimed debut novel, Y (Hamish Hamilton, 2012), with Joseph Planta.

Y by Marjorie Celona (Hamish Hamilton, 2012). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Y

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Marjorie Celona joins me now. Her debut novel Y has just been published, and it’s been an eagerly awaited book. It was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and has had terrific notices in this country. It is to be published in the United States in the new year, where Ms. Celona lives, in Cincinnati in fact. She was however born and raised on Vancouver Island, where the book is partially set. Outside the YMCA, a newborn baby is left behind by its troubled mother. Shannon, as she’s later named, goes from foster home to foster home looking for answers, as well as a refuge from neglect and abuse. Her mother Yula, a girl herself, has difficulties she’s got to overcome. I’ll get Marjorie Celona to tell us about the book, these characters, and the success of the book thus far, critical and otherwise. The website for more is at www.marjoriecelona.com. Y is published by Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Marjorie Celona; Ms. Celona, good morning.

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