After a judge finds her unfit to stand trial, Mala, a reclusive old woman suspected of murder, is placed in the tender care of a male nurse, who becomes her unlikely confidante and the chronicler of her extraordinary life.
Shani Mootoo's haunting debut took the international literary world by storm. A Book Sense selection and a finalist for the Giller Prize, the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, Cereus Blooms at Night is an exquisite cross-generational history filled with thrilling passion and alluring mystery. Set in the fictional Caribbean town of Paradise, Cereus Blooms at Night unveils the mystery surrounding Mala Ramchandin, an aging, notoriously crazy woman suspected of murdering her father. When a judge finds Mala unfit to stand trial, she is delivered, frail and mute, to the Paradise Alms House and into the care of Tyler, a vivacious male nurse, who becomes the unlikely storyteller of Mala's extraordinary life. In luminous, sensual prose, Mootoo explores identity, gender, and violence in a celebration of our capacity to love despite cruelty and despair.