A Canadian Tragedy

Anita Rau Badami tackles Big Issues in her third novel and I think it will leave some of her fans disappointed. The Montreal-based writer, whose previous efforts, Tamarind Mem and The Hero’s Walk, charmed audiences with bittersweet family drama, founders when she attempts to weave a sweeping tale around the monumental events of 20th century Indian history and the impact on the subcontinent’s Canadian diaspora.

But that she even ventures to explore and probe the fault lines that run through the Indo-Canadian community should be applauded. In this epic, Badami introduces readers to the roller coaster experience of Indian immigrants to Canada buffeted by homeland politics while building a new life in a foreign land. She constructs her narrative so the novel culminates with a series of sanguinary events in the mid 1980s, most notably the infamous Air India bombing that claimed 329 lives. Several non-fiction books on the plot have been published...