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See also www.anitaraubadami.ca
95,000 words hardcover
Finished books available
Canada: Knopf, Sep 2006
France: Éditions Philippe Rey, March 2007
Holland: De Geus, Spring 2008
Italy: Marsilio, Spring 2008
India: Penguin, Jan 2007
Australia: Scribe, Mar 2007
(Photo: Richard-Max Tremblay)
Anita Rau Badami’s first novel was the hugely successful bestseller Tamarind Woman. Her bestselling second novel, The Hero’s Walk, won the Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, Italy’s Premio Berto, and was named a Washington Post Best Book of 2001. It was also longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize. Both novels have been published in many countries throughout the world. In November 2002, Badami participated in the Salon Belles Étrangeres in Paris. In 2005, she was a guest of the Turin Book Fair. Her third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?, was released in 2006 to great acclaim and has been published in several languages.
Forthcoming from Anita Rau Badami – Tell It to the Trees: A Novel (Knopf Canada)
a novel by Anita Rau Badami
CAN YOU HEAR THE NIGHTBIRD CALL? TRACES THE EPIC TRAJECTORY OF A TALE OF TERRORISM THROUGH TIME AND SPACE
- Longlisted for the 2008 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- Shortlisted for the Ontario Library Association 2007 Evergreen Awards
- 'Passages from India': the Ottawa Citizen profiles Anita Rau Badami, September 2006
- 'A Tale of Love and Terror': The Globe and Mail features Anita Rau Badami, September 2006
- 'The In-Between World': a Quill & Quire feature profile, September 2006
- 'Learning from History': a cbc.ca profile, August 2006
Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? tells the stories of three women, linked in love and tragedy, over a span of fifty years, sweeping from the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 to the explosion of Air India flight 182 off the coast of Ireland in 1985. There is Bibi-ji, who steals the heart of her sister's fiancé and returns with him to Vancouver, where they become pillars of the Sikh community, and who is haunted by the subsequent disappearance of her sister during the violence of Partition; her neighbour Leela, who sees herself always as a "half-and-half", a newcomer struggling to find her way in the colourful "desi" community of Vancouver; and Nimmo, orphaned by the devastation that engulfed India after Partition, who tries to rebuild her life in Delhi. But for all three, the conflicts of the
past re-emerge with shattering results.
Rich with Anita Rau Badami's warmth and humanity, and filled with the daily sights,scents and sounds of both Canada and India, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? vividly reveals the tumultuous effect of the past on new immigrants, and the ways in which memory and myth, the personal and the political, become heartrendingly connected.
PRAISE FOR CAN YOU HEAR THE NIGHTBIRD CALL?
“Badami has woven a web of memory and myth in her novel, a tapestry in which the personal and the political are tragically intertwined.” — THE CALCUTTA TELEGRAPH
“An utterly engrossing and moving account of three Indian women which covers the period from the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 to the Air India bombing in 1985…. Badami’s feeling for place is matched, if not surpassed, by her ability to create characters that move off the page and into your mind – and she completes her trifecta of narrative with a splendid plot…. This novel pulsates with humanity, and Badami’s richly textured narrative captivates the reader as it delineates with tenderness and wisdom the stories of individuals and of nations.” — EDMONTON JOURNAL
“[Badami’s] a born raconteur…. Rich in echoes and irony and questions, this is one book in the growing catalogue of books we need to read to understand ourselves.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“[A] beautiful, sorrowful book….There are scenes in the novel as harrowing as anything in recent fiction, Canadian or otherwise…. [Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?] is rich in the complex joy of struggle and the possibility for tension, misunderstanding, and, sometimes, violence. Badami’s measured, conscientious response shows how important, in the face of such complexities, a novelist can be.” — CALGARY HERALD
“Writing with a keen, compassionate eye…a richly detailed book peopled with appealing characters.” — MONTREAL GAZETTE
“...a powerful third novel … Scenes are painted so vividly that you can see the characters…[a] gripping novel with superb dialogue.” — VANCOUVER SUN
“Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? is a bold yet even-handed analysis of Indian culture, but it also exposes the illusory promise of emigration: even if you distance yourself physically, you can never truly leave home....With its historical scope and emotional heft, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? should score big come award season.” — CBC.CA
“Badami, a fluent and somewhat old-fashioned storyteller...is to be commended for taking on this bitter subject, and for turning it not into a page-turning thriller but into a thoughtful, highly readable, and even slightly hopeful narrative. It deserves a wide readership.” — QUILL & QUIRE
“…a broad historical sweep.” — TORONTO STAR
“A great story, gilded with gorgeous prose and vividly realized characters … Raw, funny, poignant and thought-provoking.” — THE AUSTRALIAN WOMAN'S WEEKLY