Denison Avenue – Christina Wong

A haunting portrayal of the gentrification of Toronto’s Chinatown-Kensington Market, told from the viewpoint of an elderly Chinese-Canadian woman, Wang Cho Sum. After the heartbreaking death of her husband in a hit-and-run accident, Cho Sum copes with grief by collecting recyclables. Loss is everywhere: shops closing, loss of the Toisan dialect. How can you build a new life when elders are dismissed and discarded? The moving prose is accompanied by beautifully-rendered black-and-white drawings by David Innes. This book should be a powerful contender for Canada Reads, championed by Naheed Nenshi.