The Last Lesson of Mrs De Souza. This item is unavailable.The Last Lesson of Mrs De Souza

The stunning first novel from award-winning poet Cyril Wong, The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza is an exceptional examination of the power of choice and the unreliability of memory. One last time and on her birthday, Rose de Souza is returning to school to give a final lesson to her classroom of secondary school boys before retiring from her long teaching career. What ensues is an unexpected confession in which she recounts the tragic and traumatic story of Amir, a student from her past who overturned the way she saw herself as a teacher, and changed her life forever.

The novel calls for a change in the ways we think of freedom, individual merit, feelings, emotional relationships, and above all, personal identity. It also questions the devastating importance given to economic success and global relevance in contemporary times, and by such questioning, implies the need for a sincere peek at what makes human beings a cohesive warm-hearted community. --Uma Jayaraman, Asiatic