can_you_hear_the_nightbird_call_badami
2008 Nominated

Can you Hear the Nightbird Call

artwork-image

ABOUT
THE BOOK

The story elegantly moves back and forth between the growing desi community in Vancouver and the increasingly conflicted worlds of Punjab and Delhi, where rifts between Sikhs and Hindus are growing. In June 1984, just as political tensions within India begin to spiral out of control, Bibi-ji and Pa-ji decide to make their annual pilgrimage to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest of Sikh shrines. While they are there, the temple is stormed by Indian government troops attempting to contain Sikh extremists hiding inside the temple compound. The results are devastating.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR Anita
Rau Badami

ANITA RAU BADAMI’s first novel was the bestseller Tamarind Mem. Her bestselling second novel, The Hero’s Walk, won the Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and Italy’s Premio Berto, was named a Washington Post Best Book, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and was a finalist for the Kiriyama Prize. Her third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? was released in 2006 to great acclaim, longlisted for the IMPAC Award, and a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Her fourth novel, Tell It to the Trees, was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. The recipient of the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career, Badami is also a visual artist. She lives in Montreal.

ANITA RAU BADAMI’s first novel was the bestseller Tamarind Mem. Her bestselling second novel, The Hero’s Walk, won the Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and Italy’s Premio Berto, was named a Washington Post Best Book, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and was a finalist for the Kiriyama Prize. Her third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? was released in 2006 to great acclaim, longlisted for the IMPAC Award, and a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Her fourth novel, Tell It to the Trees, was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. The recipient of the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career, Badami is also a visual artist. She lives in Montreal.

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NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS

This ambitious novel explores the quintessential Canadian issues of memory, of allegiance and of belonging. The novel spans more than fifty years as it follows the lives of its three main characters, beginning with the 1947 partition of India, following them through subsequent conflicts.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Country
India
Original Language
English
Publisher
Knopf Canada

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