Harold Sonny Ladoo

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Harold Sonny Ladoo (1945 – 1973) is a Caribbean novelist and author of two books documenting the struggles of living in poverty in the Hindu communities of Trinidad and Tobago.

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.

It was during this time that he wrote his first and most notable novel No pain like this body, published in 1972. The novel is a vivid story of a young boy growing up in a small Caribbean rice-growing community. It 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.

His second book, Yesterdays was a much more upbeat book about a young man attempting to launch a Hindu Mission to Canada.

His third book that was intended to be last book 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.