The novel Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa is a book full of short stories that allow readers to escape their internal battles and join his world to follow the story of a Portuguese lifestyle and a Portuguese family living in Canada. The author addresses many issues that young adults face in their lives: Relationships, leaving home, and embarrassing parents.

Essentially, De Sa is able to show relationships through his character development. Throughout the first short story, “Of God and Cod”, the author shows the relationship between the main character and the significant people in his life. In a brief few sentences, De Sa introduces the reader to the main character, Manuel’s, siblings: “Albina was twenty-two and the oldest child. Her hands