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Six Metres of Pavement

by Farzana Doctor (Goodreads Author)

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 85 ratings · 27 reviews

Ismail Boxwala made the worst mistake of his life one summer morning twenty years ago: he forgot his baby daughter in the back seat of his car. After his daughter's tragic death, he struggles to continue living. A divorce, years of heavy drinking, and sex with strangers only leave him more alone and isolated.

But Ismail's story begins to change after he reluctantly befriend...more

Paperback, 384 pages

Published February 17th 2011 by Dundurn (first published February 14th 2011)

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2011 Rainbow Awards

54th out of 103 books — 28 voters

Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

Lesbian Canon

35th out of 39 books — 24 voters

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Nov 02, 2012 Cory rated it 4 of 5 stars

Have you ever found yourself out in public - on a bus or subway, at a park or in the waiting room of a doctors office - and you're watching strangers and wondering to yourself; what's their story? Well this is their story.

I loved Six Metres of Pavement. Farzana Doctor is an incredibly gentle and funny storyteller with a wonderful eye for small details of life. The story that unfolds (which you're better off not knowing about in advance) is compelling, more than enough to keep you engaged and ent...more Have you ever found yourself out in public - on a bus or subway, at a park or in the waiting room of a doctors office - and you're watching strangers and wondering to yourself; what's their story? Well this is their story.

I loved Six Metres of Pavement. Farzana Doctor is an incredibly gentle and funny storyteller with a wonderful eye for small details of life. The story that unfolds (which you're better off not knowing about in advance) is compelling, more than enough to keep you engaged and entertained. But the characters are the heart of the novel.

They become your friends, and as they fumble around trying to figure out how to survive in a world that never seems to make room for their complicated painful histories, you want to know how they do it, you laugh when they bump up against each other and themselves, and you root for them as if rooting for your own future happiness. They are the kind of characters you miss when you finish the novel.

The ways that characters sexual, cultural, and ethnic identities intersect, sometimes clashing and sometimes meshing is often laugh out loud hilarious. Their individual struggles include some unimaginable horrors, but still feel familiar. These may not be things that have happened in your own life, but it's the stuff of life that you know happens, that you've been touched by.

In some ways Six Metres of Pavement is a perfectly Toronto novel. And I should admit that I read it while away from Toronto, which probably made me love it all the more. But because Toronto is the city it is, the setting, the story, and the characters end up being both from and of countries and times far beyond the shores of Lake Ontario. It's hard to imagine anyone who won't find a friend in this book.

Doctor works a bit of magic of her own in the way these seemingly disparate characters end up in each other's lives, and in imagining a possibility of life where our connections to others - strangers, family, lovers, and the occasional co-dependent hook-up - end up being the thing that makes life worth living.

Read this book.(less)

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Sep 22, 2011 Waheed Rabbani rated it 5 of 5 stars

At writers’ conferences, it is often commented that it is riskier to set a novel in a Canadian city, than in a foreign locale say Delhi. The main reason being offered is that the plot may not be appealing to American readers. However, Farzana Doctor’s second novel, Six Metres of Pavement, set in the Little Portugal district and other environs of Toronto, compares admirably with those set in the streets of a cosmopolitan city say in the UK. The themes of the novel such as, love, tragedy, family a...more At writers’ conferences, it is often commented that it is riskier to set a novel in a Canadian city, than in a foreign locale say Delhi. The main reason being offered is that the plot may not be appealing to American readers. However, Farzana Doctor’s second novel, Six Metres of Pavement, set in the Little Portugal district and other environs of Toronto, compares admirably with those set in the streets of a cosmopolitan city say in the UK. The themes of the novel such as, love, tragedy, family and multi-cultural relationships, sexual orientation, addiction, and redemption are its main appeal, while the setting in an ethnic neighbourhood adds to their flavour. These are all told by Farzana in her unique voice, and by presenting the local viewpoints, she voids the “MacDonaldification” of the writing as one reviewer has put it.

The book starts not only with an intriguing title and the cover, but also the captivating image of Ismail Boxwala, an Indian immigrant and a municipal engineer, who is attempting to overcome a twenty-year old tragedy by ‘staying in motion,’ which among the normal daily activities involves a lot of elbow-bending at the local tavern. Farzana gradually reveals that heartbreaking event, masterfully, in snippets of flashbacks while moving the story-line forward and maintaining our concentration. We learn of the accidental death of his nearly two-year old daughter, who he’d inadvertently left in the back seat of his parked car on a hot summer morning. The child died leaving Ismail with immense grief, remorse and nightmarish images that haunt him virtually to the end of the novel. There are other repercussions of the loss. Some of these such as deteriorating job-performance, which Ismail is barely able to surmount, while the other major one, erectile dysfunction, he is not—at least temporarily. While his wife, Rehana, absolves him for the ‘worst mistake of his life’ when she tells him while leaving the cemetery, ‘I forgive you ...’ but she does not for his ED problem. After dragging him to several clinics, she—somewhat uncharacteristically for an Indian woman—walks out on him. This and other unexpected non-clichéd characterizations, such as Celia Sousa’s, the 50-year old Portuguese widow, makes the novel that much more interesting.

The book’s back cover blurb mentions two women who initiate changes in Ismail’s life. Yet in the opinion of this reviewer, there is a third woman, his beer-drinking buddy and more, Daphne, who has a profound influence on his fate. It is she who first helps him to pacify his recovered sexual vigour—following his divorce—and later almost cures his alcoholism by taking him to AA meetings. Subsequently, she is the one who pesters him to take the creative writing course. Nevertheless she disappears from his life after confessing her lesbianism.

At the creative writing classes, Ismail befriends, Fatima, an undergraduate bisexual student, who is facing difficulties having her parents accepts her sexuality and has been turfed out of their home. Although Ismail is not sexually attracted to Fatima—she’s just about the age his deceased daughter would have been—he helps her along, and the point that it is due to his latent love for his daughter is well made. Through Fatima he learns not only the meaning of queer, but also what it is like to be a destitute and homeless person. While Ismail does have some family and community friends in Toronto, who attempt to assist him in their own ways in his difficult time, it is really his friendship with Fatima and the writing school assignments that help him slay his internal daemons. He finally has the tears of grief pour out of him.

Meanwhile, although Ismail had been introduced to Celia—his neighbour six metres of pavement across the road—some time ago and had run into her occasionally, he does not initiate contact with her. It is again she who atypically connects with him. She had also been suffering emotionally in her widowhood and had been imagining visits by her deceased husband. We learn that while she was secretly spying on Ismail through the slits in the curtains from her bedroom windows, which while not unusual in those close nit communities, her further actions catch us unaware.

While the ending of the novel might be somewhat like a ‘fairytale,’ as one reviewer put it, it is, nevertheless, wonderfully written in a congenial style and one that will ‘tug at the heartstrings’ that another reviewer wrote.

Farzana has won much acclaim for this novel. She was awarded the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Dayne Ogilvie Grant for Emerging Gay Writers, and this book was also nominated for an entry to the long list for the Scotia Bank Giller Prize. It is said that books on the short list for this prestigious award are already winners—at the bookstores—and the same can be said for a novel on the nomination list.

It should not be long before we would see Farzana’s novels up on the bestseller lists, and with the popularity of the Bollywood movies dramatized on the celluloid screen as well.

Waheed Rabbani is the author of “Doctor Margaret’s Sea Chest,” the Book I of his “The Azadi Trilogy.”
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Aug 30, 2012 BlueMist rated it 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book to read during the travel that spanned across 4 days. The story is set up in a Cannadian City but references the area that is called as 'Little Portugal". The plot touches lot of topics like LGBT, life after losing the spouse, adult romance etc.

The protagonist Ismial Boxwala is middle aged man nursing his wounds from past. A tragedy where his wife changes routine and this man forgets his daughter in the backseat of his car in the tormenting summer heat. When the cops walk i...more I picked up this book to read during the travel that spanned across 4 days. The story is set up in a Cannadian City but references the area that is called as 'Little Portugal". The plot touches lot of topics like LGBT, life after losing the spouse, adult romance etc.

The protagonist Ismial Boxwala is middle aged man nursing his wounds from past. A tragedy where his wife changes routine and this man forgets his daughter in the backseat of his car in the tormenting summer heat. When the cops walk into his office with the news that they found his dead daughter in the car, then he recalls that he completely forgot about her. Obviously the whole trauma changes shape of his life, the calamity followed by futile effort to have another kid and followed by divorce. The impact is so high and the guilt that the man does not know how to cope with the life. He is lonely, he does not have a life other than heavy drinking. Tragedy has engulfed him so much that, he can not talk with people. In his head he imagines that people will ask him uncomfortable questions about the incident and he is not ready to face them.

Like Ismail ghost of her dead husband and mother haunts Celia. Celia lives with daughter and grandson in the house opposite Ismail's. She gets into the mourning mode after her husband death followed by her mother's and she just does not seem a way out. In all these years she has almost forgotten to live for herself.

So eventually Ismail meets Celia and Fatima. Fatima who is struggling with her queer issues and her parents throw her out of their home due the her queerness. The two women suddenly became part of Ismail's lonely life and he has his hands full.

The book is nice. At times I felt like taking a break from monotonous melancholy of the plot but I kept going back to reading. The first half the story moves very slowly, it gets dragged and you feel like skipping some pages.

Having said the book was different. From the title I had no idea why it is named this way. If you are traveling and have time on your hand, grab the copy and enjoy.(less)

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Apr 09, 2013 Angel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this tender glimpse into the lives of people who, by the end of the book, felt entirely real to me. Doctor has a gentle, kind touch while rendering what begins as a completely heart-breaking story. I was rooting for Ismail, Celia and Fatima, and though I found the ending quite fairy-tale-esque, I was so happy to see them come through hell to find forgiveness, love and connection. It's hard to imagine a story that centres on accidentally killing your baby, alcoholism, isolati...more

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Sep 16, 2012 Zak Greant rated it 5 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed Six Metres of Pavement, reading it at first in little bites on the tram to work, then staying up too late one night to hungrily wolf down the last few hundred pages. I'm looking forward to going back and reading this little gem of a book again.

What I most enjoyed about my first reading was the insightful, well-crafted and compassionate telling of the main characters. We get to see the world through their eyes, but we're never told how to feel about them – only how they feel a...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Caseythecanadianlesbrarian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian, fiction, queer, south-asian, toronto, lammy, bisexual

I bought and started reading Farzana Doctor’s second novel Six Metres of Pavement with specific and high expectations: not only has it just been shortlisted for the 2012 Toronto Book award, it was named one of Now Magazine’s top ten books of 2011 and won in the category of lesbian fiction at the most recent Lambda Literary awards. Six Metres of Pavement also won a 2011 Rainbow award. That’s a lot of praise, especially for only a second-time novelist. This kind of positive feedback creates high e...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Donna rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this novel. The story evolves around an ordinary little man named Ismail and how he comes to terms with the guilt and grief of losing his small child and eventually his wife. He is a modern day Willie Loman, but his life's journey finds love and support from two other characters in a very uplifting tale. When I began reading this book I was afraid that it would be dark and brooding. In stead I found a surprisingly joyful ending.

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Apr 24, 2011 Rashida added it

Farzana Doctor takes us through life challenges in a very real, effective and eloquent work. I thoroughly enjoyed the book as she leads us through the agonizing of Ismail, Celia’s widowhood and the ongoing struggle that Fatima deals with her family, the isolation and unnecessary hardships. And then, she gently redeems them with such grace to find love, friendship, hope, joy and a better future.

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Jun 19, 2011 Aban (Aby) rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read about this book in the Globe and Mail and the subject matter sounded interesting: an (East) Indian man, living with the consequences of accidentally killing his baby daughter, finally finds himself able to move on with his life by building new relationships. Whilst the story line held my interest, I found the writing to be weak. This is not a book I will be recommending to my friends.

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Apr 13, 2011 Sil rated it 5 of 5 stars

Six Metres of Pavement is a wonderful tale set in Toronto. You will root for the protagonists just like I did, and will hope that they can find what they need from themselves and each other. Farzana Doctor skillfully writes a very tender story of finally getting out of an unimaginable place. A page-turner right to the very end.

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Apr 04, 2011 Mldicki rated it 5 of 5 stars

A really good read - Ismail and Celia gradually getting to know each other, crossing the boundaries of their own losses and tragedies to sharing with each other. Moving on into new mysteries. Set in downtown neighbourhoods of Toronto, the city, as well as the characters, spring to life on the pages of this intriguing and moving novel.

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Dec 24, 2012 Faith rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-queer-fiction

I had hoped to recommend this novel to my lesbian fiction book group, but I can't. For one thing, it is glacially slow. For another, almost nothing happens that isn't described on the book's back cover. And the Southeast Asian queer activist mentioned on the back cover isn't a well-realized character; we get to know her mainly from what her parents and the main character say or think about her. This book won a Lammy because it's neatly written, not because it has a queer sensibility.

Doctor is a...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Danie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: romance, lgbtq, literature

It started out so amazingly and agonizingly depressing that I wasn't sure if I even wanted to keep reading it, but, as well as being wicked depressing, the writing and the stories did draw me in. So I'm glad that I finished it.

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Mar 10, 2012 Kathrynb rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved this booked. I read it because I used to work with Farzana, and wanted to read her book. I enjoyed getting to know the characters, and I was sad to say good-bye to them. I was not disappointed.

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Oct 10, 2012 Orla Hegarty rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canada, toronto-based

I really loved it. I shed a few tears and had a few laughs along the way too. And as a middle aged person I appreciated the wisdom that was exposed rather than described (to use a phrase that jumped out at me in the book).

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Jun 25, 2012 Mihaela rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

Poorly written, a lot of cliches used. I read it because I wanted to test the "lending "ebook functions from myy local library and this book was available. I do not know why I finished it. I guess I wanted to know"what happenss next" and in that alone the book had some merit.

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Mar 18, 2013 Maman rated it 4 of 5 stars

The characters were superbly developed and the story was enchanting with a few unsuspected twists and turns. Lovely read.

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Aug 18, 2012 Jennifer Fosket rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good read. Slow at first but I got drawn into the characters and rooted for their lives and chosen families to work out.

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Mar 03, 2013 Anoja Muthucumaru rated it 2 of 5 stars

Good. Tended to drag at times and was very internal and lacked a lot of action in the first half.

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Aug 08, 2012 Meena Mono rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was a good story but difficult for me to read about such a heart wrenching topic.

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Jul 30, 2012 Winnie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a very good read ~ characters of Ismail, Celia and Fatima were portrayed excellently.

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Jun 29, 2011 Liz Bugg rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a novel with an abundance of heart and soul - well worth the read.

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Mar 26, 2013 Debby K rated it 4 of 5 stars

an excellent novel that explores self forgiveness. I am looking forward to meeting Farzana at an event next month.

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Jun 24, 2012 jillbertini rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: queer, fiction, 2012, gave-up

The writing is good, but the story so heartbreaking I couldn't read it.

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Apr 16, 2012 Carrie Marcotte rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian-literature, four-star-books, kobo, south-asian-lit

This book started off slow, but I got really sucked in by the well developed characters. This is a good book about second chances and I like the focus on the two main characters being a little older.

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Feb 19, 2013 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loved it!

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Jun 18, 2013 Barath Nataraj is currently reading it

Jun 16, 2013 Lydia rated it 1 of 5 stars

Jun 13, 2013 Sheila Anderson is currently reading it

Jun 12, 2013 Sheila Toller rated it 4 of 5 stars

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About Farzana Doctor

I am a writer and social worker. I'm the author of Stealing Nasreen (Inanna 2007) and Six Metres of Pavement (Dundurn, 2011). I've had a number of my articles, book reviews and poems published in a variety of magazines and journals. I'm currenly working on my third novel.

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Asking the Right Questions 2: Talking with Clients about Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Mental Health, Counselling and Addiction Settings

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