Neil Bissoondath’s first novel, A Casual Brutality, was published in 1988. It is a bildungsroman that extensively draws from his experience of oscillating between two different worlds. It traces life on a chaotic island and in metropolitan Canada while carefully interweaving the consciousness of the double diaspora. Written in a highly descriptive style, and often seen as tedious and challenging by some readers, the novel narrates the story of Dr. Raj Ramsingh. Like Bissoondath, Raj was born on one of the Caribbean islands fictitiously named Casaquemada, inspired by Trinidad, where his grandparents had migrated as indentured laborers from north India. Time and distance from India made them settle in the host land, where they prospered with their hard work. Raj, their beloved grandson, becomes their responsibility after his parents’ tragic death in a car accident. Raj’s aspirations change when he dreams and decides to go to Canada for higher education. In search of better prospects, like other migrants of the 1980s, Raj reaches Toronto, hopeful of finding a place in the mosaic of Canadian culture.