CAN YOU HEAR THE NIGHTBIRD CALL?

Book ID/图书代码： 12760006B04369

English Summary/英文概要： Set in India and Canada, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? is the story of three women linked and destroyed by the political turmoil that sweeps through the Punjab first during the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, and then in the 1980s when the demand for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan comes into violent existence.
Bibi-ji or Sharanjeet Kaur, is the beautiful ambitious wife of Papa-ji a wealthy Sikh businessman in Vancouver. She has grown accustomed to using her beauty and her wealth to get her way in everything. Leela Bhat, first her tenant and later her closest friend is a woman much like Bibi-ji — driven by dreams of success but, unlike Bibi-ji, frustrated in her ambitions. Nimmo, a gentle fearful woman trapped by the nightmares of her past is Bibi-ji’s niece. She lives a modest middle-class life in Delhi, certain that disaster lies around the corner of every single day.
In 1935 sixteen-year old Sharanjeet Kaur achieves her heart’s desire by stealing the future that might have been her sister’s. In 1947 during the unimaginable violence of Partition, the reinvented Bibi-ji, wife of a wealthy Sikh immigrant in far-away Vancouver, discovers that nothing in life comes without its repercussions. What had seemed a small crime all those years ago returns to haunt her. When she finally finds her long-lost niece Nimmo in Delhi after nearly a quarter of a century of searching, Bibi-ji is ecstatic. She persuades Nimmo to let her bring up her older son Pappu in Vancouver. By spending money on the boy, Bibi-ji believes that she can absolve herself of guilt. But fate and the politics of the Punjab intervene again. In June 1984 the quarrel between the Khalistani separatists and the Indian government reaches a head. Indira Gandhi sends the army into the sacred Golden Temple in Amritsar profoundly shocking Sikhs all over the world and pushing some of them over the edge to violence. One of the people inspired to violence is Pappu, now a turbulent young man torn between his life in the west and his history which lies in India. Bibi-ji is troubled by his involvement in the politics of another country but cannot bring herself to stop him.
Five months later, in Delhi, the Indian prime-minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by her Sikh bodyguards. In the aftermath, a wave of violence against Sikhs is unleashed. Nimmo and her family are destroyed. Engulfed by sorrow and a corrosive, indiscriminate rage against all Hindus, Bibi-ji cuts off her long friendship with Leela Bhat. Her unease over Pappu’s involvement in anti-India activities turns to tacit support. Through him she hears rumours of an impending crime, but so implacable is her anger that she refuses to warn anyone about it. As a result she is indirectly responsible for one more tragedy.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 1947年印度和巴基斯坦的邊界領土分割紛爭到80年代錫克省的獨立流血抗爭 ，不僅代表兩個民族的歷史仇恨，更訴說著三位女性如何被命運及動盪不安的政治混亂糾纏。善於利用美麗外表及才智的Bibi-ji，雖成功的勾引姐姐的外婚夫因而離開印度來到加拿大，也擺脫了貧困的過去，但對姐姐失蹤的愧疚卻成為她新夢魘；而她剛移民的鄰居Leela，雖然努力融入溫哥華的南亞移民的社群，不過仍對自己身份充滿著疑惑；Nimmo經過印度領土分裂(Partition)的戰火蹂虐後成了孤兒，一心想要回到德里(Delhi)重新展開新的生活。對這三位女性來說雖然都極力擺脫過去，但似乎並無法就此輕易的遺忘…(from XMM)

Awards/获奖情况：RIGHTS SOLD
Canada: Knopf, September 2006
France: éditions Philippe Rey
Holland: De Geus, 2006
Italy: Marsilio, Fall 2006
入圍2008年國際IMPAC都柏林文學獎(The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award) http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/

About the Author/作者介绍： Anita Rau Badami1961年生於印度，對寫作充滿熱誠的她於18歲時便出版第一部短篇小說。在之後的求學生涯便一直朝寫作的相關領域前進，畢業於Madras大學英國文學系，並取得傳播學碩士，曾在廣告業、出版業、報社任職過幾年，最後仍回到她最喜愛的寫作工作，1996年推出首部長篇作品Tamarind Woman後，便一舉登上暢銷排行榜，第二部長篇作品The Hero’s Walk不僅依然暢銷，更榮獲Regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize、義大利貝托文學獎(Premio Giuseppe Berto Literary)及華盛頓郵報2001年度最佳好書。此外她也常獲得國際IMPAC都柏林文學獎(The International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award)、柑橘獎(Orange Prize for Fiction)、(Kiriyama Prize) 、美國桐山環太平洋書卷獎(Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize)等提名。
Winner of the 2005 Giuseppe Berto Literary Prize for the best new Italian translation, Anita is also the youngest recipient of the Marian Engel Award, and winner of the Regional Commonwealth Prize for her most recent book, the bestseller The Hero’s Walk, which was named a Washington Post Best Book of 2001. Badami’s first novel, Tamarind Woman, was released in the US and UK in 2002. In November 2002, Badami participated in the Salon étranger in Paris. In 2005, she was a guest of the Turin Book Fair. Anita Rau Badami currently resides with her husband and son in Montreal.

Format:HARDCOVER

Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE

Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE

Sales in other countries/其他国家销售情况：RIGHTS SOLD Canada: Knopf, 2006 France: Editions Philippe Rey, 2007 Netherlands: De Geus, 2008 Italy: Marsilio, 2008 India: Penguin, 2007 Australia: Scribe Publications, 2007

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