When a young woman is subjected to a violent attack, the impact of
colonialism, patriarchy, and who we choose to love are thrown into sharp
relief. Daria is an immigrant woman living in Toronto, and as she begins
to tell her story, the reader is pulled into different worlds,
travelling to various timeframes and locations in an unending
awe-inspiring Matryoshka play, where one story leads to another and
another and another. The novel explores the stories of multiple
characters-the Indo-Portuguese-Canadian sexual predator; the idealist
and resilient Mozambican freedom fighter; the wondrous Iberian Roma
circus; the Christianized Muslims and Jews; the mystical Nubian master
who knows how to capture black matter; the fascist dictator whose
ruthless cousin delivers unthinkable punishments inside the closed walls
of Tarrafal, the infamous Cape Verdean prison of the Portuguese colonial
regime-and countless other personalities, some wretched, some
redeemable, some otherworldly, who defend visions and ideals and fight
for dignity, power, and recognition.
Moving back and forth between Canada, Portugal, Mozambique, and Cape
Verde, Daria is a magical realism historical novel where fact and
fiction intermingle to create a spellbinding world of complex political,
familial, and cultural dynamics.
