Tamarind Mem, Anita Rau Badami
Tamarind Mem, Anita Rau Badami
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Tamarind Mem

Author: Anita Rau Badami

Narrator: Anita Rau Badami

Unabridged: 9 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Vintage Canada

Published: 02/27/2018

Synopsis

A beautiful and brilliant portrait of two generations of women. Set in India’s railway colonies, this is the story of Kamini and her mother Saroja, nicknamed Tamarind Mem due to her sour tongue. While in Canada beginning her graduate studies, Kamini receives a postcard from her mother saying she has sold their home and is travelling through India. Both are forced into the past to confront their dreams and losses and to explore the love that binds mothers and daughters everywhere.

About The Author

ANITA RAU BADAMI's first novel was the bestseller Tamarind Woman. Her bestselling second novel, The Hero's Walk, won the Regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize and Italy's Premio Berto, was named a Washington Post Best Book, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction, and was a finalist for the Kiriyama Prize. Her third novel, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?, was released in 2006 to great acclaim, longlisted for the IMPAC Award, and named a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. The recipient of the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career, Badami is also a visual artist. She lives in Montreal.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sarah on June 18, 2013

I picked up this book because I wanted a rich way of exploring parent-child relationships in a South Asian context. It’s well-written, I guess, and not without some worthwhile reflections. But you have to dig very, very deep, past a lot of ugliness in traditional Indian culture, to find them. And I......more

Goodreads review by Nalini on July 09, 2014

A 3.5 really. The first half of the book was a tedious read because it was from a child's perspective and as such was daunting. However, it picked up its pace when the Memsahib started her tale. I related better to her experiences, her emotions because I have always wondered about arranged marriages......more

Goodreads review by Anushree on September 25, 2021

This one's a cacophony of sharp, bright, brittle and poignant recollection from a daughter (Kamini) and mother (Saroja) of their family life in India's railway colonies. At once intense, intimate, vulnerable and vibrant, Kamini's version and Saroja version of the same 'railway' life add flavour and......more

Goodreads review by Ian on August 25, 2019

Is this a novel or is it autobiography? If the former, Anita Rau Badami is a writer who can create a sharp sense of personal perspective with no detectable mis-steps in time, place or emotional shading. The mother-daughter relationship rang true for me even though I am not in a position to truly und......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on February 07, 2011

I really enjoyed the story about family life on the Indian railway, but I had a few issues with the story. It took me a while to realize that the novel was chronological with breaks for the narrator's present interactions with other characters. I also missed the chapters, but that was for my own per......more

Quotes

“A tremendous achievement—a skillful and compassionate family saga that is personal, intimate, tender and revealing.” —The Globe and Mail

“Intoxicating. . . . An ambitious sweep of storytelling about family, about memory, about myth and history and the infinite interpretability of relationships.” —Ottawa Citizen

“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)

"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

"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

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