Shortlisted for the 1999 Asian-Canadian Writer''s Workshop Award

What is the nature of Banana? To Luke, Dave, Mike, and Sheldon, it''s a curious predicament brought on by upbringing - growing up yellow on the outside, white on the inside. They''re together to pay their last respects to Rick, the one Banana Boy who seemed to have it all, but was found dead in his living room, apparently of suicide.

The tragedy that has reunited the Banana Boys becomes the point from which we are introduced to the intertwined stories of a group of young friends caught in cultural and social limbo. Not really Chinese and not quite Canadian, the Banana Boys stumble through situations, incidents and interactions that ultimately explore the nature of identity and reveal the possibilities each character has within himself.

Peppered with piercing insights and laced with comic anecdotes, Banana Boys provides unforgettable texture to the ordinary - and extraordinary - tribulations of being twentysomething, male, and Asian in Canada. b