Sat, Oct 31  •  1:30pm

Memory & Migration

Anita Rau Badami and Rabindranath Maharaj

Hear from these best-selling authors

Fiction
Conversation
Pass Required
Passes available
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Memory & Migration
Memory & Migration

Sat, Oct 31  •  1:30pm

Memory & Migration

Anita Rau Badami and Rabindranath Maharaj

Hear from these best-selling authors

Conversation
Fiction
Pass Required
Passes available
View Passes
↑

About

What stays with us as the years pass—and what does it take to make peace with the past? Join Anita Rau Badami, author of Asha in Her Garden, and Rabindranath Maharaj, author of A Quiet Disappearance, for a moving conversation about memory, migration, family ties and the fleeting nature of life. In Asha in Her Garden, a woman nearing 70 revisits the tragedies and choices that shaped her journey from India to Canada, finding unexpected clarity in the changing garden she has made her home. Maharaj’s collection of short stories brings together older Caribbean immigrants confronting memories, regrets and the losses accumulated over a lifetime. Both explore the timeless topics of aging, belonging, and displacement while capturing the surprising moments of revelation that emerge when we look back at the lives we’ve lived.

A Globe and Mail Best New Book of Summer 2026 • One of CIBA's Essential Summer Reads • Included in The Quill & Quire's 2026 Fall Fiction Preview Bestselling, award-winning, Canada-Reads finalist (for The Hero's Walk) Anita Rau Badami showcases her extraordinary storytelling gifts in this entertaining tale set in India and Montreal—her much-anticipated first novel in fifteen years. Asha Mohan's backyard garden in Montréal, shaded by a cherished maple tree, has been her sanctuary since she and her husband moved to Canada from India decades ago. It is here that Asha finds refuge from the trials of her now-grown children, and exchanges gossip and advice over a shared hedge with Madame Brard, her formidable neighbour who took Asha under her wing long ago.
Read more about Asha In Her Garden

Published by Penguin Random House Canada

Cover of Asha In Her Garden

Beautifully crafted stories in which older men and women from the Caribbean islands confront their pasts, with regrets and wonder as they discover subtle epiphanies. The stories consider the briefness of life, not only its final outcome but the losses accumulated over the years.
Read more about A Quiet Disappearance

Published by Mawenzi House

Cover of A Quiet Disappearance

Image of Anita Rau Badami
Anita Rau Badami is the author of the beloved bestsellers Tamarind Mem and The Hero’s Walk. The novels that followed, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? and Tell it To The Trees, received great acclaim and were both longlisted for the prestigious IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Read more about Anita Rau Badami

Image of Rabindranath Maharaj
Rabindranath Maharaj is an award-winning Trinidadian-Canadian author of five novels and four short story collections. His novel The Amazing Absorbing Boy won the Trillium Book Award and the Toronto Book Award.
Read more about Rabindranath Maharaj

Dates & Times

Sat, Oct 31
1:30pm
↑
2:30pm
A book signing will follow this event

Tickets

Full Festival Pass
SOLD OUT
Regular $159
Under 30 $79
5-Day Festival Pass
Includes 5-day festival events. Excludes Masterclasses.
Regular $159
Under 30 $79
2-Day Weekend
Includes all Victoria University events. Excludes Winter Garden Theatre events and Masterclasses.
Regular $69
Under 30 $39
1-Day Saturday
Includes all Saturday events.
Excludes Masterclasses.
Regular $39
Under 30 $29
Pass Information
5-Day Festival Pass includes Barbara Kingsolver and East West Street: A Song of Good & Evil .
2-Day Weekend and 1-Day Passes do not include Winter Garden Theatre events.
View Passes
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Venue

Emmanuel College Chapel, Room 319

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