The short story writer and novelist, Neil Bissoondath, was born in Trinidad in 1955. He emigrated to Canada in 1973 and has been living in Quebec for the several years now. He is the author of several novels and short-story collections, as well as of a powerful essay on Canadian multiculturalism, Selling Illusions: The Cult of Multiculturalism in Canada. Several of his novels explore the theme of insularity, such as his novel, The Unyielding Clamour of the Night, where an imaginary island, covered by a luxuriant tropical forest, is the site of bloody clashes between a state army and rebels who are fighting for their independence.