Divisadero (novel)

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Divisadero

Author	Michael Ondaatje
Country	Canada
Language	English
Genre(s)	Fiction Literary fiction
Publisher	McClelland & Stewart, Knopf
Publication date	April 17, 2007
Pages	288 pp
ISBN	ISBN 978-0771068720 (McClelland & Stewart) ISBN 978-0307266354 (Knopf)

Divisadero is a novel by Michael Ondaatje, first published on April 17 2007 by McClelland and Stewart.

The novel centres on a single father and his children: Anna, his natural daughter; Claire, who was adopted as a baby when Anna was born; and Cooper (Coop), adopted later as an orphaned boy. The family live on a farm in Northern California where Anna and Claire are treated almost as twins, but Cooper as something of an outsider. After Anna begins a sexual relationship with Coop, an incident of violence tears the family apart. The book then details each of the characters' separate journeys through life post-incident and how they are all interconnected.

Anna is found in France tending to a farmhouse once owned by the French poet Lucien Segura. Claire works for a legal firm in San Francisco while visiting her father on the weekends. Coop becomes a professional gambler working his way up and down the West Coast. The second part of the story then details the history of the French farm which has a number of close parallels to the first part of the story.

Divisadero won the Governor General's Award for English fiction. It was also shortlisted for the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize.