Read an excerpt
See all author's titles
See also www.anitaraubadami.ca
368 pages hardcover
Finished books available
US: Algonquin
US: Paperback: Ballantine
UK: Bloomsbury
France: Stock
Spain: Ediciones Bronce
Catalan: Columna
Canada: Knopf
Greece: Kastaniotis Editions
Poland: Wydawnictwo Dialog
Portugal: Difel
Italy: Marsilio
Holland: De Geus
(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
a novel by Anita Rau Badami
THE HERO'S WALK TRACES THE TERRAIN OF FAMILY AND FORGIVENESS THROUGH THE LIVES OF AN EXUBERANT CAST OF CHARACTERS BEWILDERED BY THE RAPID PACE OF CHANGE IN TODAY'S INDIA
- Youngest recipient of the Marian Engel Award
- A Washington Post Best Book of 2001
- Longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award
- Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction
- Winner of the 2001 Regional Commonwealth Prize for Best Book
- Winner of the 2005 Giuseppe Berto Literary Prize for Best Italian Translation
- A national bestseller
In the dusty seaside town of Toturpuram on the Bay of Bengal, the modern world is fast encroaching upon Sripathi Rao. His mother is disappointed that he never became a doctor; his sister, longing for love, is the bane of local matchmakers; his only son prefers embarrassing student activism over employment; and his wife, though ever-dutiful, has become disillusioned and bitter. 
But the small disasters of everyday life wither when his beloved daughter and her husband are killed in a car crash.
Nandana, their surviving seven-year-old daughter, is about to become Sripathi's reluctant ward and the wayward catalyst that forces him to come to terms with the pain of his loss.
PRAISE FOR THE HERO'S WALK
“This book demands to be read straight through—20 pages a night before switching off the bedside lamps will leave most readers longing for more.” — THE WASHINGTON POST
“The Hero's Walk is a novel of broad and lovely scope. Badami deftly handles terrifying shifts in tradition and social order.” — ELLE
“This is Badami's talent for storytelling: she imbues every sentence with compassion.... Her easy way with narrative weaves a rich and textured history, and she holds its various strands just taut enough, lightening and darkening the Rao family fortunes, until her readers long, as avidly as Rao, for the monsoon to bring relief.” — QUILL& QUIRE, starred review
“In a twisty tale of shifting prose, The Hero's Walk makes old values seem new again. Bottom line: A walk worth joining.” — PEOPLE
“A skilled writer can convey epic events through the lives of ordinary people. Badami's The Hero's Walk...is an outstanding example of such skill.... In graceful prose, replete with the sensuous details of everyday life, she gives us a portrait of resilience and adaptability in the face of personal disillusion, trauma, and disintegrating tradition.” — COMMONWEALTH PRIZE JURY
“A confident and engaging second novel.... Yet while this is a novel about cultural clashes, they are rarely the expected ones. A family winding down towards crabby retirement has now to face the extent to which the world has changed. This is a substantial, satisfying read, elegantly written and effortlessly compelling. Much reminiscent of Rohinton Mistry, The Hero's Walk teems with memorable characters and wry cameos.” — THE INDEPENDENT, UK
“I remembered Badami's evocative, sensual prose, her astute rendering of the poignancy of human relationships, her sense of humor. I was not disappointed. Her second novel is even finer than her first.” — TORONTO STAR
“A picture of post-colonial India is vividly conjured up.... Sharply realized as the minor characters are, they are never allowed to overshadow the central figures.... The more upbeat mood [of the latter part of the book] mitigates the sadness of the rest, and brings this very accomplished first novel to a quiet and satisfying conclusion.” — THE TIMES, UK