Writer, critic and scholar Randy Boyagoda is a professor of American studies at Ryerson University. His debut novel, Governor of the Northern Province, was longlisted for the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Toronto with his wife and three daughters.

Sam Bokarie is an ex-African warlord who moves to small-town Canada to capitalize on its zealous hospitality. Based in part on a notoriously vicious figure, this debut novel responds to this warlord's mysterious disappearance by imagining what would happen if he turned up in Canada and aligned himself with an ambitious but clumsy politician. With searing wit, Boyagoda has created a powerful tale of political ambition and unlikely alliances that reviewers hailed as genius.