Yleistieto

Kanoninen nimi: Rau Badami, Anita
Syntymäaika: 1961
Sukupuoli: female
Kansalaisuus: India
Canada
Syntymäpaikka: Rourkela, India
Asuinpaikat: Rourkela, India (birth)
Bombay, India
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Koulutus: University of Madras (BA, English)
University of Calgary (MA, English), 1995
Palkinnot ja kunnianosoitukset: Marian Engel Award (2000)
Agentti: The Bukowski Agency
Lyhyt elämäkerta: Anita was born in India in 1961. She grew up in a household, where English was the primary language spoken, and she attended Catholic schools. At age 18, she borrowed money from her father to buy novels, and to pay him back. She took her first writing assignment, an article in a local newspaper, which earned her 75 rupees. She worked as a copywriter for advertising agencies and she wrote stories for children magazines. Anita married in 1984 and she had a son in 1987. Anita moved to Calgary in 1991. In 1995, she graduated from the university of Calgary, with MA degree in English. Anita Rau Badami submitted her first work to Penguin books. Penguin published her work, and soon she was touring North America, reading from her best-selling debut novel "Tamarind Mem".

Jäseniä

Keskustelut

Canadian Author Challenge — March: Farley Mowat & Anita Rau Badami, 75 Books Challenge for 2016 (huhtikuu 2016)

The Hero's Walk, Orange January/July (tammikuu 2012)

Kirja-arvosteluja

Tell It to the Trees Tekijä: Anita Rau Badami

4.25 stars

Varsha is 13-years old (or 12?) when her half brother, Hemant, is born. Varsha’s had a tough life until now: her mother was leaving her father when she was in a car crash and died. Not long after, her father headed to India to bring home a new bride. Varsha is so scared of her new Mama leaving that she hides Suman’s passport so she is unable to.

Why might Suman want to leave? Abuse. It’s why Varsha’s mother tried to leave. When Vikram (Varsha’s father) decides to rent out the little house behind theirs in this tiny rural area in B.C. a former classmate (whom he does not remember), Anu, comes from NYC in hopes of getting some writing done. While there, she befriends Suman and Vikram’s mother, Akka. And slowly figures out something is wrong with the family.

This was told from many different points of view, including Suman, Anu, Varsha, and Hemant, so we got to see almost everyone’s perspective of what was going on. Varsha became very possessive – she was very controlling (reminiscent of her father?); I initially felt badly for her, but came to quite dislike her. And the end? I liked it although many might not due to it being open-ended, so we don’t really know how it continues or what happens, though I suppose we can guess. I think this would make a good book club book with lots to discuss.… (lisätietoja)

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LibraryCin | 10 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jun 10, 2023 |

The Hero's Walk Tekijä: Anita Rau Badami

“His home was crumbling about his ears, his sister was going crazy and his mother wouldn't shut up. Did it matter? No, not at all. What else were heroes for but to swat troubles away like so many flies?” — Anita Rau Badami, “The Hero's Walk”

Reading Anita Rau Badami's impressive 2000 novel “The Hero's Walk,” one will probably assume the title refers, sooner or later, to Sripathi Rao, the angry, disappointed middle-aged man at the center of the story. Sripathi, who once studied medicine, now writes advertising copy, and even that job hangs by a thread. The passion has gone out of his marriage. Both his troublesome mother, Ammayya, and his younger sister, Putti, live with them. Putti wants desperately to get married, but her mother time after time rejects matches proposed by a matchmaker. Sripathi's son, Arun, has dedicated his life to social protest instead of getting a good job.

Yet most of his anger and disappointment stems from the actions of his beloved daughter, Maya, who rejected an arranged marriage into a prominent Brahmin family and instead, while a student in Canada, married a white man and had a daughter. Sripathi refuses to speak with her on the phone or to read her letters.

But now word comes that both Maya and her husband have been killed in an auto accident, and their seven-year-old daughter, Nandana, has been orphaned. Sripathi must travel to Vancouver and bring Nandana back to India to raise. The girl refuses to talk to him or to anyone else and thinks only of escaping and finding her way back to Canada.

Hero imagery pops up here and there throughout Badami's novel. So does Sripathi emerge as a hero? Well, yes, but then so does virtually every other character. The phrase "everyday heroes" is more than a cliche to this author. Simply living one's life, doing one's best, taking care of one's loved ones, fulfilling one's responsibilities, keeping one's promises — all such things can be acts of heroism. Swatting troubles away is something we all must do.… (lisätietoja)

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hardlyhardy | 20 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Dec 9, 2022 |

The Hero's Walk: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle) Tekijä: Anita Rau Badami

This is the last book in my three year postal book club journey. It's not a book I would have picked up on my own as I rarely enjoy slice-of-life literary fiction. This book definitely falls in the "Oprah book" category of a book about miserable people leading miserable lives, but I can't call it an over all miserable book or say that it ends miserably. The writing is evocative, and while I absolutely abhorred the grandmother, I appreciated the other characters, even in their saddest moments. If I'm honest, despite the lovely, skilled writing, I most likely would have bailed on this in print. This kind of literary fiction just is not my cup of tea. The audiobook narrator, Laara Sadiq, however, does an exquisite job, and made even the most dreary, slow sections of the plot bearable.… (lisätietoja)

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DGRachel | 20 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jul 11, 2019 |

Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? Tekijä: Anita Rau Badami

This book starts in the 1920s in India when Sharan is a child. As she gets older, she is the more beautiful of the two sisters, but her mother won't marry her off until her sister gets married first. So, Sharan steals the man meant for her sister and he brings her to Canada. The book follows Sharan and her husband in Vancouver, but also jumps forward in time and follows her niece Nimmo when she grows up and has a family in India. A third main character, Leela, also comes to Vancouver from India. The book continues up to the mid-1980s (Indira Gandhi's assassination and the aftermath) alternating between India and Vancouver.

I wouldn't have chosen this book, except I was reading it for my book club Turns out, I really liked it. I was drawn in quickly and wanted to keep reading. I learned a lot about India and its history that I didn't know. I always appreciate a historical note at the end of a book and that was included here.… (lisätietoja)

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LibraryCin | 8 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Sep 25, 2018 |

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