The Sleeping Car Porter

By (author) Suzette Mayr

Aug 29, 2022 | Paperback , Trade | $23.95

Scotiabank Giller Prize 2022, Winner

Carol Shields Prize for Fiction 2023, Short-listed Reviews
City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize 2023, Winner
Republic of Consciousness Prize 2022, Short-listed “Mayr’s prose is vivid but never
George Bugnet Award for Fiction 2023, Short-listed overwrought, capturing the surrealism
of intense fatigue in constant motion …
Readers will be captivated.” –
When a mudslide strands a train, Baxter, a gay Black sleeping car porter, must Publishers Weekly, starred review
contend with the perils of white passengers, ghosts, and his secret love affair
9781552454589
The Sleeping Car Porter brings to life an important part of Black history in North "In 1929, being a passenger train
English America, from the perspective of a gay man living in a culture that renders him porter was fraught with
5.25 x 8.25 x 0.75 in | 0.77 lb invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that you’ll feel the challenges...Baxter’s own sleep
rocking of the train, The Sleeping Car Porter is a stunning accomplishment. deprivation is perhaps the most
224 pages intriguing character of the book. It
Baxter’s name isn’t George. But it’s 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black leads to hallucinations, questionable
Subject man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter on a train that crisscrosses the country. decisions, and borderline supernatural
So when the passengers call him George, he has to just smile and nod and act suggestions."– Kirkus Reviews
FICTION / African American & Black invisible. What he really wants is to go to dentistry school, but he’ll have to save up
/ Historical a lot of nickel and dime tips to get there, so he puts up with “George.”
"Suzette Mayr’s novel The Sleeping
On this particular trip out west, the passengers are more unruly than usual,
Car Porter an artfully constructed
Distributor especially when the train is stalled for two extra days; their secrets start to leak story that moves, beguiles, and
satisfies." – Brett Josef Grubisic, The
out and blur with the sleep-deprivation hallucinations Baxter is having. When he
Publishers Group Canada finds a naughty postcard of two gay men, Baxter’s memories and longings are
Toronto Star
reawakened; keeping it puts his job in peril, but he can’t part with the postcard or
Expected ship date: Jun 29, 2023 his thoughts of Edwin Drew, Porter Instructor. "Suzette Mayr brings to life –
believably, achingly, thrillingly –a
Contributor Bio whole world contained in a passenger
Carton Quantity: 48 train moving across the Canadian
Suzette Mayr is the author of the novels Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley vastness, nearly one hundred years
Hall, Monoceros, Moon Honey, The Widows, and Venous Hum . The Widows was ago. As only occurs in the finest
shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in the Canada- historical novels, every page in The
Caribbean region, and has been translated into German. Moon Honey was
shortlisted for the Writers' Guild of Alberta's Best First Book and Best Novel
Awards. Monoceros won the ReLit Award, the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell
Book Prize, was longlisted for the 2011 Giller Prize, and shortlisted for a Ferro-
Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, and the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction. She
and her partner live in a house in Calgary close to a park teeming with coyotes.