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  • I've Been Meaning to Tell You

  • A Letter to My Daughter
  • Written by: David Chariandy
  • Narrated by: David Chariandy
  • Length: 2 hrs and 19 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (37 ratings)

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I've Been Meaning to Tell You

Written by: David Chariandy
Narrated by: David Chariandy
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Publisher's Summary

In the tradition of Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, acclaimed novelist David Chariandy's latest is an intimate and profoundly beautiful meditation on the politics of race today.

When a moment of quietly ignored bigotry prompted his three-year-old daughter to ask "what happened?" David Chariandy began wondering how to discuss with his children the politics of race. A decade later, in a newly heated era of both struggle and divisions, he writes a letter to his now 13-year-old daughter. David is the son of Black and South Asian migrants from Trinidad, and he draws upon his personal and ancestral past, including the legacies of slavery, indenture, and immigration, as well as the experiences of growing up a visible minority within the land of one's birth. In sharing with his daughter his own story, he hopes to help cultivate within her a sense of identity and responsibility that balances the painful truths of the past and present with hopeful possibilities for the future.

©2018 David Chariandy (P)2018 McClelland & Stewart
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What the critics say

"Poetic and moving, a slim but weighty book that excavates things often left unsaid." (Globe and Mail)

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What listeners say about I've Been Meaning to Tell You

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My voice

This waivered between my mother and my own voice. A lot of these experiences were my own with different names.

I have not often had a chance to listen to a Caribbean author though. and that made it all the more special

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Wonderful

The audio is wonderful and I used it to follow the book. Mr. Chariandy did a great job reading the novel. I felt his voice allowed the words to come to life.

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I could listen to David read every day

honestly I'm so glad I decided to listen to this book. David's writing is like poetry and his voice creates beautiful harmonies. I truly enjoyed this book! I learned a lot too. and I love the reflections put forth about lineage, family, and hope for the future.

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