num_pages: 352
description: A novel of exceptional heart and imagination about the ties that bind us to each other broken and whole from one of the most exciting voices in Canadian fiction. September 1983. Fourteen-year-old Bo a boat person from Vietnam lives in a small house in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto with his mother Thao and his four-year-old sister who was born severely disfigured from the effects of Agent Orange. Named Orange she is the family secret; Thao keeps her hidden away and when Bo's not at school or getting into fights on the street he cares for her. One day a carnival worker and bear trainer Gerry sees Bo in a streetfight and recruits him for the bear wrestling circuit eventually giving him his own cub to train. This opens up a new world for Bo--but then Gerry's boss Max begins pursuing Thao with an eye on Orange for his travelling freak show. When Bo wakes up one night to find the house empty he knows he and his cub Bear are truly alone. Together they set off on an extraordinary journey through the streets of Toronto and High Park. Awake at night boy and bear form a unique and powerful bond. When Bo emerges from the park to search for his sister he discovers a new way of seeing Orange himself and the world around them. All the Broken Things is a spellbinding novel at once melancholy and hopeful about the peculiarities that divide us and bring us together and the human capacity for love and acceptance.
language: English
title: All the Broken Things
publisher: Random House Canada