Why a Booktrail?
Destination: Toronto Departure Time: 1900 – 1930s
The prequel to the famous story of The English Patient
In the Skin of a Lion
What you need to know before your trail
Patrick Lewis has arrived in the bustling city of Toronto, leaving behind his Canadian wilderness home. He immerses himself in his new life and learns from their experiences, soaking up their stores in order to learn more about the city itself.
And the cast of characters in Toronto is long and colourful. The city is being built and developed by bridge building, road construction and many of the workers flocking to the city are immigrants searching for a better life.
PAtrick is on the hunt for someone – a missing millionaire by the name of Ambrose Small, the theatre mogul which will see him dig deep into the heart and soul of the city itself.
Travel Guide
Rural Ontario
This is the story of the shaping of Canada from the work that was required over many yeas to make the country what it became. Many immigrants played their par in cattle-herding building the railways, logging and building great engineering feats such as bridges and dams
Toronto 1930s
The novel is a tapestry of the life of ordinary people at a time when the city was growing and changing like never before. Patrick sees these changes and stories and watches from the outside in a country which feels like no longer the one he thought he knew.
Toronto’s history
Ondaatje’s novel is fiction, but it is based on many real events in history such as the construction of the Prince Edward Viaduct between Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue and the workers strikes in the city which were famously suppressed by Dennis Draper, the police chief at the time.
Ambrose Smalls was a real life, famous theatre magnate who owned several venues across Ontario and who did disappear and was never found. So a real mix of truth and fiction woven together to reveal the most fascinating tapestries of life in a thriving growing city.
Much of the material, he used to research this novel has been digitized and can be accessed online here, allowing you to see Toronto’s history for yourself- including the earliest known photographs of the city.
With many thanks to Tourism Toronto for the pointers!
Streetview Maps
A) Toronto - Prince Edward Viaduct
B) Toronto - The Grand Old Opera House
Where Next?
