{"id":143,"date":"2012-06-14T09:36:13","date_gmt":"2012-06-14T09:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.ryerson.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/anita-rau-badami\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T19:21:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T23:21:33","slug":"badami","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/authors\/badami\/","title":{"rendered":"Anita Rau Badami"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Anita Rau Badami was born in India and immigrated to Canada with her husband and son in 1991. Badami completed a B.A. in English at Madras University and studied journalism at Sophia College in Bombay. She completed an M.A. at the University of Calgary, producing a novel for her thesis entitled “Railways and Ginger.”
In 2000 Badami was the recipient of the Marian Engel Award that recognizes a Canadian woman author in mid-career.
Badami currently lives in Montreal but has lived in Calgary and Vancouver. She is also a visual artist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Asha in Her Garden<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2026.
forthcoming August 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Asha Mohan’s backyard garden in Montr\u00e9al, shaded by a cherished maple tree, has been her sanctuary since she and her husband moved to Canada from India decades ago. It is here that Asha finds refuge from the trials of her now-grown children, and exchanges gossip and advice over a shared hedge with Madame Brard, her formidable neighbour who took Asha under her wing long ago. The magnificent tree also marks the spot where\u2014twenty years ago, on the evening of her 50th birthday\u2014Asha was knocked unconscious by an unsavoury drug-dealing acquaintance\u00a0of her wayward son.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Now, as Asha turns 70, the maple tree has reached its end and must be cut down. In its shadow, Asha finds herself remembering the attack of twenty years back and haunted by an earlier, shocking tragedy in India, one that caused her to flee the country of her birth. As Asha re-examines herself, her reconfigured garden, and her relations with friends, enemies, and loved ones (\u201ctwo children from the same body \u2013 mine \u2013 and each a complete stranger\u201d), she unearths new clarity about who she is and what might be required of her now\u2014a vision with the power to transform her life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: A.A. Knopf Canada, 2006.
PS8553 .A27 C36 2006<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

… 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2006 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction<\/a> (Quebec Writers’ Federation)(Finalist)
2007 City of Vancouver Book Award<\/a> (Finalist)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Hero’s Walk: A Novel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2000.
PS8553 .A27 H47 2000<\/a>
Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2001.
Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2000 Kiriyama Prize–Fiction (Finalist)
2001 Commonwealth Book Prize<\/a> Best Book–Canada and Caribbean Region
2001 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize<\/a> (Nominated)
2005 Premio Giuseppe Berto<\/a> (Winner) for Italian translation by Fabio Zucchella
2016 CBC Canada Reads (Finalist)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Steeped in the colors, customs, and sensuality of India, The Hero’s Walk<\/em> presents a family in all its messy, glorious contradictions. With insight, humor, and compassion, The Hero’s Walk<\/em> shows the potential for heroism in ordinary lives.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tamarind Mem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: Viking, 1996.
Toronto: Penguin Books, 1997.
PS8553 .A27 T3 1998<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published in the U.S. under title: Tamarind Woman<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis (from the Penguin Random House website)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Growing up in India, Kamini often found herself struggling to be noticed: noticed by her beloved, storytelling father, whose position as a railway officer took him away from home for long stretches of time; and noticed by her distant, distracted mother, Saroja, whose biting remarks earned her the nickname Tamarind Woman\u2014and whose frequent disappearances while her husband was away led to whispers of dalliances and affairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Kamini is grown, living in Canada in a sort of self-imposed exile from her eccentric family and all the turmoil they represent. After her father\u2019s death, her mother embarks upon a solo journey across India by train\u2014 because what is the use of a lifetime railway pass if she doesn\u2019t use it? The trip brings the past rushing back for Saroja and Kamini\u2014as both are forced to confront their dreams, disappointments, and long-guarded secrets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Fiction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tell it to the Trees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Toronto: Knopf Canada, 2011.
PS8553 .A27 T44 2011<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Synopsis<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One freezing winter morning a dead body is found in the front yard of the Dharma family’s house. It’s the body of their tenant, Anu Krishnan. Why had she, a stranger to the mountains, been foolish enough to go out into the blizzard? From this gripping opening, Anita Rau Badami threads together a story of love and need, and of chilling secrets never told aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awards and Honours<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

2012 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction<\/a> (Quebec Writers’ Federation)(Finalist)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Anthology<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Closer to Home: The Author and the Author Portrait<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

TR681 .A85 B97 2008<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Byrnes, Terence. “Anita Rau Badami in Her Home.” In Byrnes, Terence. Closer to Home: The Author and the Author Portrait<\/em>. Montr\u00e9al: V\u00e9hicule Press, 2008, 104-105.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Selected Criticism and Interpretation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Babcock, Rebecca. \u201c\u201cOne Small Way\u201d: Racism, Redress, and Reconciliation in Canadian Women’s Fiction,1980-2000.\u201d Ph.D. diss., Dalhousie University, 2011. Accessed August 30, 2013.
Available as an open access dissertation<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chilana, Rajwant Singh. “Anita Rau Badami.” In South Asian Writers in Canada: A Bio-Bibliographical Study<\/em>. Surrey, BC: Asian Publications, 2017, 167.
Z1376 .S68 C45 2017<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kandiuk, Mary. “Anita Rau Badami.” In Caribbean and South Asian Writers in Canada: A Bibliography of Their Works and of English-language Criticism<\/em>. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2007, 7-8.
PS8089.5 .C37 K36 2007<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kuortti, Joel. “Diasporic Experiences: Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk, Vineeta Vijayaraghavan’s Motherland: The Other Side of My Heart and Amulya Malladi’s The Mango Season.” In The Expatriate Indian Writing in English. Vol. 1<\/em>, ed. T. Vinoda and P. Shailaja, 2006, 109-127.
PR9489.6 .E96 2006 v.1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rahman, Shazia. “Resisting Women: Orientalism, Diaspora, and Gender.” Ph.D. diss., University of Alberta, 2002.
Available from Proquest Dissertations and Theses<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rajan, Gita. “Poignant Pleasures: Feminist Ethics as Aesthetics in Jhumpa Lahiri and Anita Rao [sic] Badami.” In Literary Gestures: The Aesthetic in Asian American Writing<\/em>, edited by Rocio G. Davis and Sue-Im Lee. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2005, 104-120.
PS153 .A84 L58 2005<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

Links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Badami Profile and Interview with Linda L. Richards<\/a> in the August 2000 edition of January Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publisher Knopf Canada<\/a> (now an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anita Rau Badami on Tell it to the Trees, part of CBC Radio One’s The Next Chapter with Shelagh Rogers<\/em>,\u00a0 episode “Anita Rau Badami, Brad Smith, Roy MacGregor” broadcast July 30, 2012.\u00a0 First broadcast March 5, 2012.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anita Rau Badami was born in India and immigrated to Canada with her husband and son in 1991. Badami completed a B.A. in English at Madras University and studied journalism at Sophia College in Bombay. She completed an M.A. at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":16,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-143","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22329,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/143\/revisions\/22329"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.torontomu.ca\/asianheritage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}