Background
Ladoo was born and grew up in an environment much like the world of his novels. He was born in Trinidad into extreme poverty and immigrated to Toronto, Canada, with his wife and son in 1968 to study English at the University of Toronto.
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Harold Ladoo
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He moved to Canada in 1968 and was mysteriously murdered while on a visit to Trinidad in 1973. lieutenant was during this time that he wrote his first and most notable novel, Number Pain Like This Body, published in 1972. Described by David Chariandy and "an unusually strong first novel", it is the vivid story of a young boy growing up in a small Caribbean rice-growing community.
The book focuses on the day-to-day struggles of a single family through illness, storm, and violence during the August rainy season.
The writing is raw and often naïve yet manages to create a visceral experience. Ladoo"s third book was intended to be the last part of a trilogy.
However, in 1973, while on a visit home to his Calcutta Settlement, he was mysteriously killed and his body was found on the side of a road in Trinidad. The University of Toronto Mississauga campus (formerly Erindale College) offers to students The Harold Sonny Ladoo Book Prize for Creative Writing every year.
