Tamarind Mem
Page 24
VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2004
Copyright © 1996 Anita Rau Badami
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Published by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2004. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. First published in Canada by Viking Penguin Group (Canada) in 1996.
Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited.
Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Badami, Anita Rau, 1961–
Tamarind mem / Anita Rau Badami.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37530-8
I. Title.
PR9499.3.B18T34 2004 823.′914 C2003–905689–9
www.randomhouse.ca
v3.0
Praise for Anita Rau Badami and Tamarind Mem
“An exciting addition to the burgeoning tradition of Indo-Canadian writing that includes Rohinton Mistry, M.G. Vassanji and Shyam Selvadurai.”
Maclean’s
“Badami weaves a tale of bittersweet nostalgia in her first novel, imbuing her descriptions of Indian domestic life with achingly palpable details as she explores all the small ceremonies that make family life so simultaneously rich and infuriating.…A delectable book.”
Quill & Quire (starred review)
“This novel is a beauty.… An absolute delight to read.”
Indian Review of Books
“A powerful story … it allows daughter and mother to each speak for herself, and the resulting ironies and differing perspectives make for a richly textured work.”
Books in Canada
“Over the past few years, there has been a surge of superb novels coming from the pens of a new generation of expatriate East Indian writers…. In Tamarind Mem, intimate aspects of life in modern India are sensuously and often harshly revealed through the eyes of women.…This layered novel’s suggestive world seeps smoothly into your consciousness.”
Winnipeg Free Press
“An engaging depiction of a daughter’s longing to know her mother and of our tendency to see things the way we want rather than the way they are.”
Calgary Herald
“Tamarind Mem’s strength is in its depiction of family tensions, the elusiveness of memories and how dreams and disappointments are passed from one generation to the next as if they were family heirlooms.”
The Gazette (Montreal)
“It is a book brimming over with smells, sounds and colours, putting the reader so firmly in place and time that you feel you are there. All in all, a lovely piece of work.”
The Washington Post
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Part 1 - Kamini
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Part 2 - Saroja
Chapter 6
Copyright