Are Canadian writers Canadian enough?
“Are you Canadian enough to understand?” she asked.“That depends,” I responded. “What do you mean by enough?”“That’s a relief,” she said. “I thought you were going to ask me what I meant by Canadian.”John Barber, in an article entitled “Are Canadian writers Canadian enough?” (The Globe and Mail – Oct. 29, 2011), bemoans the fact […]
They sell books in Supermarkets, don’t they?
A well known Israeli writer is selling his new book exclusively through an Israeli supermarket chain. There, nestled between the carrots and tomatoes, you can pick up his book and add it to your cart of groceries. How is he doing so far? He has already sold over 50,000 copies of his book – which […]
How to write Canadian
Hello everybody. This is Tom Chambers, from Expats Anonymous. Today we are interviewing David Lloyd, a Canadian Expat, whose first novel – As I Died Laughing – has been published as an e-book. We thank David for allowing us to reprint this interview on his blog.Tom: From looking at your personal history, I see that […]
Walking among the ibex
“Where have all the flowers gone?” my wife asked. “Flowers?” I suddenly remembered the image of an ibex walking past me the day before on my way back home from work, white petals sticking out of the side of his mouth. “Yes the flowers in the garden. All of them. Suddenly gone.” What had struck […]
Why Guinness always tastes better in Tel Aviv
How far would you go for a good pint of Guinness? A 5 minute drive? 20 minutes? How about two and a half hours? There is a quaint little pub in the heart of Tel Aviv, neatly tucked away opposite the Dan Hotel, close to the American Embassy, and just a stone’s throw away from […]
Where tooth fairies fear to tread
Yesterday I sat in the dentist’s chair, with the sound of a drill boring into the bone in my mouth. I felt like I was in a road construction crew, with me as the road. The drilling finally stopped, and then for some reason the dentist had to start hammering. All in the process of raising […]
What is an Expat like you doing in a place like this?
One of the best things about growing older is that people tend to stop questioning your life choices. Maybe this is because they don’t see you as having much of a life left. The expiration date has passed, and they figure that you are here to stay. But old expat habits die hard. When do […]
Not a proud day to be a Canadian
Vancouver is ablaze. Rioting in the streets. “Canadians rioting?” people in other parts of the world ask. And at that moment you see the flicker of respect for Canadian character disappear from their eyes. You know then that you will never again be able to convince people that Canadians are uniquely different from Americans. And […]
Where does your loyalty lie?
It’s the Winter Olympics 2014 and we’re sitting down to watch the Gold Medal hockey final. All of Israel is talking about the unbelievable meteoric rise of Team Israel from total anonymity to becoming a leading contender in the hockey world. Years of dodging Katyushas on the only Olympic-size ice rink in Israel alongside the […]
Home is where the Heart is
“There is no place like home! There is no place like home! ” Dorothy exclaims, clicking her heels together three times, as she is magically transported back to the Kansas farm she calls home.I grew up in the same house in Scarborough, a Toronto suburb, for the first 18 years of my life (minus the […]