Best Seller

The Assassin's Song

Name: The Assassin's Song
Price: 14.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: M.G. Vassanji
ISBN: 9781400076574

Paperback $14.95

Published on Aug 12, 2008 | 352 Pages

Buy from Other Retailers:

$14.95

Published on Aug 12, 2008 | 352 Pages

Buy from Other Retailers:

In the aftermath of the brutal violence that gripped western India in 2002, Karsan Dargawalla, heir to Pirbaag – the shrine of a mysterious, medieval sufi – begins to tell the story of his family. His tale opens in the 1960s: young Karsan is next in line after his father to assume lordship of the shrine, but he longs to be “just ordinary.” Despite his father’s pleas, Karsan leaves home behind for Harvard, and, eventually, marriage and a career. Not until tragedy strikes, both in Karsan’s adopted home in Canada and in Pirbaag, is he drawn back across thirty years of separation and silence to discover what, if anything, is left for him in India.

“A deeply affecting story, full of contemplation and mystery. . . . At once lush and precise.”—Chicago Tribune“Thought-provoking and satisfying. . . . There are echoes of Rohinton Mistry, of V. S. Naipaul, of Salman Rushdie. But the lyricism of Karsan’s contemplations, the careful evocation of place, the writer’s obvious warmth for his characters, the sense of compassion layered into the story—these are all Vassanji’s.” —The Washington Post Book World“A resplendent novel. . . .Vassanji eloquently details the sufferings of Karsan’s family as the price of his individual freedom.”—The New Yorker“Moving. . . . A complex, multifaceted drama, one that interweaves history, religion and politics with a vibrant personal story.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Q: Please talk a bit about the horrible violence that shook western India in 2002?

A: The violence took place in the state of Gujarat in early 2002. It followed an incident in which a train compartment carrying Hindu Nationalist activist-pilgrims caught fire and some 60 people were literally burned alive. The activist pilgrims were returning from the site of the 16th-century Babru Mosque, which had been demolished in 1993 by activists claiming it to have been an ancient Hindu site.

Following the burning of the train compartment, attributed to Muslims but never actually proved, a pogrom took place in Gujarat in which Muslim households were targetted and attacked in various places, goaded on by the right-wing Gujarat government, and encouraged by the police. The worst kind of violence imaginable took place, against women especially.

Following this violence (euphemistically called "riots") and basing its decision on the Indian Human Rights Commission, the US State department refused a visitor’s visa to the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mody.

Q: How did you decide to write about this period?

A: I used this violence and its terrible destruction as a point from which to bring out the history of a shrine up to its destruction.

Q: Tell us about Karsan. Does someone like Karsan exist in your life?

A: Not exactly like him. I’ve given him a historical background similar to where my community might have branched from. And so the Sufi (mystic) at whose graves people come to worship is based on similar holy men in my own background. Karsan’s thrill at discovering new intellectual frontiers reflects what I felt like when I came to the US (at MIT, though I’ve put him at Harvard where he can study liberal arts). His acquired agnosticism reflects mine, and his father’s denial to take Hindu or Muslim sides exclusively reflects my own attitude, and what I believe traditionally was my own people’s attitude.

Q: Did you write portions of this book while in India?

A: No, but I visited places–shrines, cities–which inspired it and which I used as background. I’ve just come back from Shimla, from where Karsan writes this book, and it was a thrill to see Postmaster Flat again!

Q: In The In-Between World of Vikram Lall you also explore displacement in a character. Is there a particular reason that this is a recurring theme in your work?

A: There is an in-betweenness about Hindu and Muslim worlds, and belonging to both. Displacement is of course at the core of my existence and that of my family and people.

Q: Are you currently writing a novel?

A: I am thinking about one but actually am about to complete a memoir of my travels in India over the last 14 years.

Author

M.G. Vassanji

M.G. Vassanji is the author of ten novels, three collections of short stories, a travel memoir about India, a memoir of East Africa, and a biography of Mordecai Richler. He is twice winner of the Giller Prize (1994, 2003) for best work of fiction in Canada; the Governor General’s Prize (2009) for best work of nonfiction; the Harbourfront Festival Prize; the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa, 1990); and the Bressani Prize. The Assassin’s Song was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Prize, the Writers Trust Award, and India’s Crossword Prize. Nostalgia, his dystopian novel, was a finalist for CBC’s Canada Reads. His work has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Swahili. Vassanji has given lectures worldwide and written many essays, including introductions to the works of Robertson Davies, Anita Desai, and Mordecai Richler, and the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. In June 2015, MG Vassanji was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize for the Arts.

Learn More

The Assassin's Song

Related Genres

You May Also Like

The Legend of Colton H. Bryant

The American Way of Death Revisited

Quiet Until the Thaw

Sweet Thunder

Crossed Over

The Purchase

Descent

In the Language of Miracles

Strange Flowers

Cimarron

Success!

Part of Vintage Contemporaries

By M.G. Vassanji