A rollicking memoir through the shifting zeitgeist of the last five decades

In The Barefoot Bingo Caller, Antanas Sileika finds what’s funny and touching in the most unlikely places, from the bingo hall to the collapsing Soviet Union. He shares stories that span his attempts to shake off his suburban, ethnic, folk-dancing childhood to his divided allegiance as a Lithuanian-Canadian father. Antanas has a keen eye for social comedy, bringing to life such memorable characters as ageing beat poets, oblivious college students, the queen of the booze cans, and an obdurate porcupine. Passing through places as varied as the prime minister’s office and the streets of Paris, these wry and moving dispatches on work and family, art, and identity are ones to be shared and savoured.

“The Barefoot Bingo Caller is evocative, unfailingly honest, wry and dead-on funny! A masterful piece of writing — like being entertained on a summer night by your closest and most charming friend.” — Miriam Toews, bestselling and award-winning author of All My Puny Sorrows and A Complicated Kindness

“A wonderful book, worthy of Leacock. Funny and wistful, always engaging and wholly original, The Barefoot Bingo Caller charts the geography of belonging from the suburbs of Weston to the streets of Vilnius, from iconic Parisian bookstores to secret fishing holes in the backwoods of Ontario.” — Will Ferguson, Giller prize-winning author of 419 and three-time winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour

“The Barefoot Bingo Caller is such a vivid and surprising look backward; this book is filled with pleasures, and I enjoyed it immensely.” — Meg Wollitzer, author of The Interestings

“The Barefoot Bingo Caller soars in its descriptions of a boy’s childhood and perfectly conveys with humour and aplomb the push and pull of the identity of an immigrant in a new land.” — Catherine Gildiner, author of Too Close to the Falls