Can you Hear the Nightbird Call
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.
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.