What do you think?
Rate this book
Reparations
Twenty-five years after falling in love with the same woman, childhood friends face each other in the courtroom as a judge and a lawyer.
- GenresFiction
398 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
1 person is currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Kimber
22 books45 followersSTEPHEN KIMBER, a Professor of Journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Canada and co-founder of King's MFA in Creative Nonfiction program, is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster.
His two most recent books include a novel — The Sweetness in the Lime (Nimbus, 2020) — and a work of nonfiction, Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadia Politics (Goose Lane, 2021).
Alexa is the biography of iconic Canadian feminist political leader Alexa McDonough.
Sweetness is a love story set in Havana, Halifax and Miami. It tells the story of Eli, a resolutely single, fiftysomething newspaper copy editor who spends his nights obsessing over reporters’ unnecessary “thats” and his days caring for a demented father he knows should be in twenty-four-hour care. Then, on a single day, he loses his job and his father dies. He ends up adrift in Cuba where he falls in love with Mariela, an off-the-books Havana tour guide. But does Eli really fall for Mariela or just for the idea of her? And does she actually love him, or is he just her ticket to a better life. They both have secrets they’re not willing to share until they have no choice. The Sweetness in the Lime is "a charming, clever novel that peels back the rind to discover there really is sweetness in the lime of life."
Kimber is also the author of ten other books, including another novel, Reparations (HarperCollins, 2006), and eight non-fiction titles — What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five (Fernwood 2013); IWK: A Century of Caring (Nimbus 2009); Loyalists and Layabouts: The Rapid Rise and Faster Fall of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1783-1792 (Doubleday 2008); Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War (Doubleday 2002); NOT GUILTY: The Trial of Gerald Regan (Stoddart 1999); Flight 111: The Tragedy of the Swissair Crash (Doubleday 1999); More Than Just Folks (Pottersfield 1996); and Net Profits (Nimbus 1990). He is also co-author of the book The Spirit of Africville (Formac 1992) and the most recent updated edition of Thomas Raddall’s classic Halifax: Warden of the North (Nimbus 2010).
Since 1983, he has taught journalism at the University of King’s College, where he specializes in creative nonfiction. From 1996 to 2003 and in 2007-08 and 2013-14, he was Director of the School of Journalism.
In 2001, he completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction degree at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.
He and his wife, Jeanie Steinbock Kimber, live in Halifax. They have three grown children.
His two most recent books include a novel — The Sweetness in the Lime (Nimbus, 2020) — and a work of nonfiction, Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadia Politics (Goose Lane, 2021).
Alexa is the biography of iconic Canadian feminist political leader Alexa McDonough.
Sweetness is a love story set in Havana, Halifax and Miami. It tells the story of Eli, a resolutely single, fiftysomething newspaper copy editor who spends his nights obsessing over reporters’ unnecessary “thats” and his days caring for a demented father he knows should be in twenty-four-hour care. Then, on a single day, he loses his job and his father dies. He ends up adrift in Cuba where he falls in love with Mariela, an off-the-books Havana tour guide. But does Eli really fall for Mariela or just for the idea of her? And does she actually love him, or is he just her ticket to a better life. They both have secrets they’re not willing to share until they have no choice. The Sweetness in the Lime is "a charming, clever novel that peels back the rind to discover there really is sweetness in the lime of life."
Kimber is also the author of ten other books, including another novel, Reparations (HarperCollins, 2006), and eight non-fiction titles — What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five (Fernwood 2013); IWK: A Century of Caring (Nimbus 2009); Loyalists and Layabouts: The Rapid Rise and Faster Fall of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1783-1792 (Doubleday 2008); Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War (Doubleday 2002); NOT GUILTY: The Trial of Gerald Regan (Stoddart 1999); Flight 111: The Tragedy of the Swissair Crash (Doubleday 1999); More Than Just Folks (Pottersfield 1996); and Net Profits (Nimbus 1990). He is also co-author of the book The Spirit of Africville (Formac 1992) and the most recent updated edition of Thomas Raddall’s classic Halifax: Warden of the North (Nimbus 2010).
Since 1983, he has taught journalism at the University of King’s College, where he specializes in creative nonfiction. From 1996 to 2003 and in 2007-08 and 2013-14, he was Director of the School of Journalism.
In 2001, he completed a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction degree at Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.
He and his wife, Jeanie Steinbock Kimber, live in Halifax. They have three grown children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 16, 2020
This is a great book about an important Canadian story. Built on the framework of the facts about Halifax’s destruction of the community of Africville, Kimber has written a really good legal thriller.
June 11, 2020
A compelling multi-timeline story of important moments in the history of Nova Scotia, particularly in regards to its racial history. Although the story and court case it covered was fictional, the general history behind the events were true. Knowing Kimber is a journalist, as he described shady and outright illegal political dealings, crimes virtually erased from history, and many other nefarious acts covered up by high-powered men and their suitcases full of cash, it was hard not to wonder how many of these scenarios were actually inspired by events Kimber had uncovered but was forbidden to report.
Without giving too much away, Reparations refers to the reparations due to the citizens of Africville, who the city of Halifax, in an acknowledged human rights violation, forced from their homes in the 1960s. The trial, which is about one man's choice to take justice into his own hands, is about so much more, a history of injustice, and the secrets and lies in the personal histories of the characters involved.
It was chilling at times to read of the history I knew about (the displacement of Africville's people, the racism in Halifax, the unfair treatment of blacks in the city) and the history I didn't - the behind-closed-doors and sometimes right out there for everyone to see workings of how these racist attitudes and acts played out in both institutionalized ways and more casually at the hands of those who are supposed to be making our city, and our world, a better and more just place.
Overall, a great and captivating read.
Without giving too much away, Reparations refers to the reparations due to the citizens of Africville, who the city of Halifax, in an acknowledged human rights violation, forced from their homes in the 1960s. The trial, which is about one man's choice to take justice into his own hands, is about so much more, a history of injustice, and the secrets and lies in the personal histories of the characters involved.
It was chilling at times to read of the history I knew about (the displacement of Africville's people, the racism in Halifax, the unfair treatment of blacks in the city) and the history I didn't - the behind-closed-doors and sometimes right out there for everyone to see workings of how these racist attitudes and acts played out in both institutionalized ways and more casually at the hands of those who are supposed to be making our city, and our world, a better and more just place.
Overall, a great and captivating read.
August 30, 2022
I think this book should have been an award winner. I read a number of books "about" N.S. when I moved here - 2005/6 mostly non-fiction but I was told this was fiction but thinly veiled "non-fiction"... as much of the background on political parties (Liberal slush fund? Rum and turkeys in car trunks?) is/was true. It was riveting.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews