Anita Rau Badami
Arts Literature Person
Anita Rau Badami (born 24 September 1961) is an Indian-Canadian novelist.
Born in Rourkela, Orissa, India, she was educated at the University of Madras and Sophia College in Bombay. She emigrated to Canada in 1991, and earned an M.A. at the University of Calgary. Her first novel, Tamarind Mem (1997), grew out of her university thesis.
Her novels deal with the complexities of Indian family life and with the cultural gap that emerges when Indians move to the west. Badami's third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call explores the Golden Temple Massacre and the Air India Bombing.
Badami cites as among her favourite books Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, Cat's Eye and Surfacing by Margaret Atwood, A House for Mr Biswas by V. S. Naipaul and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.
- Tamarind Mem - 1997 ISBN 0-670-86916-3 (U.S. title: Tamarind Woman - 2002)
- The Hero's Walk - 2001 ISBN 0-676-97225-X
- Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? - 2006