Books on sugar, First World War and 19th century Russia make prize short list
Published Tuesday January 6th, 2009
TORONTO - After sorting through potential nominees for the Charles Taylor Prize for literary non-fiction, juror Jeffrey Simpson found that one title had an odd side effect.
Elizabeth Abbott's "Sugar: A Bittersweet History" may have forever altered his morning routine.
"The next time you take a lump of sugar and put it in your tea, you say: 'Wow. There's an immense history behind that lump of sugar,"' Simpson said.
That kind of remark is sweet music to Abbott's ears.
Her book was among three shortlisted for the $25,000 award on Tuesday, along with Ana Siljak's "Angel of Vengeance: The 'Girl Assassin,' the Governor of St. Petersburg, and Russia's Revolutionary World" and Tim Cook's "Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1917-1918, Volume Two."
"Sugar" begins with Columbus introducing the sweet stuff to the New World and continues through centuries of violence and slavery that followed.
Abbott said she hopes the book causes readers to think twice about where sugar comes from - as Simpson did.
"That is so what I want," said the author, who was in tears when she learned she'd made the short list. "I want the book to be a tribute to all the sugar workers who have (died). I want it to be a vehicle for change, for social justice, so that it won't keep on happening.
"The history of sugar is very bittersweet. The commodity is sweet, but nothing else about it is sweet."
Abbott's book chronicles the deplorable treatment of slaves in the West Indies who were wrenched from Africa and put to work on cane fields.
For Abbott, the book is deeply personal. Born in Montreal, but with Antiguan roots, she calls it the culmination of her life's work - something she always knew she was going to write but couldn't figure out her approach.
"In a way, I spent my life working on this book," she said. "This book is the book of my heart. If a truck smashed me, my last thought would be: 'At least I wrote my sugar book."'
Abbott, the former dean of women at the University of Toronto's Trinity College, made frequent visits to the West Indies for decades, interviewing cane-cutters in the Dominican Republic and tracing the route travelled by displaced African slaves.
She learned Haitian Creole while living in Haiti from 1983-88, allowing her to communicate with cane-cutters and strengthening her resolve to tell their story.
But she published other books first - "A History of Celibacy" and "A History of Mistresses" - because she didn't feel ready to tackle the topic she felt so close to.
Finally, in 2004, when she ended her 13-year stint at the University of Toronto, Abbott put her mind to "Sugar."
"There was nothing else but to do but the sugar book," she said. "I was ready. Sometimes you just know things. I just knew I was ready.
"And so I wrote this book not just for myself but for all of those of us who come from sugar culture."
The other two nominees for the award wrote books likewise rooted in history.
Queen's University professor Siljak's book tells the story of notorious Russian terrorist, Vera Zasulich, and her trial following the murder of a Russian general.
Cook, a curator at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, used previously unpublished letters, diaries and memoirs to capture the experience of battle through the eyes of the combatants.
"I've read many books of military history, but this one is so graphic as to what the horror was on the actual battlefield, without being voyeuristic, that it's a page-turner, and therefore relevant to today," said Simpson, who was one of three jurors who sorted through 135 books submitted by 43 publishers.
A winner will by announced Feb. 9. Runners-up receive $2,000.
Abbott says she doesn't expect to win - "there are other really good books, too," she notes - but if she does, she'll put the money toward establishing a scholarship.
"To me, the nomination is not just about me, it's about a whole way of life," she said. "It's an acknowledgment of everything that I tried to do, that I wrote about.
"If this could lead to a scholarship - everything would be coming together. This book is bringing everything together for me."
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