Anywhere but Here Front Cover

Paperback / softback
ISBN: 9781772012903
Pages: 160
Pub. Date: May 4 2021
Dimensions: 8.5" x 5.5" x 0.4375"
Rights: Available: WORLD
Categories
Non-Fiction / SOC007000

  • DRAMA / Women Authors
  • DRAMA / Canadian
  • DRAMA / Caribbean & Latin American
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration

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Anywhere but Here

By Carmen Aguirre

Anywhere but Here is an external representation of the inner turmoil of exile. Using magic realism tropes, it follows a family on a journey back toward Chile from Canada. They drive in a convertible along the desert border between the U.S. and Mexico, each with different emotions about the North they are leaving and the South they are approaching, reversing their refugee flight, refusing the state of exile. The father and his two young daughters encounter an increasingly fantastic range of characters. They are encircled by past, present, and future in a collective vision that takes them, and the audience, into the compelling experiences of people crossing and guarding the border. Threaded through the external journey is the internal search for home in an unstable world. With the arrival of the mother of the family, they confront the costs of exile and the true nature of home.

"Anywhere But Here is a glorious ride... [it] is madly ambitious. It’s original. And it sets a new highwater mark for Latinx representation in Canada."
—Colin Thomas

"Defying both time and space, with raps written by Shad Kabango, Aguirre crosses borders, literally, emotionally, and metaphysically... Anywhere But Here creates empathy around immigration with effective storytelling."
—the Vancouver Arts Review