Valmiki's Daughter

‘Tis the season for buried wounds, closeted sexualities, uncomfortable silences and other popular family traditions. At the launch of her new book, Valmiki's Daughter, bestselling novelist Shani Mootoo will discuss how such familiar ingredients provide a solid basis for an exotic literary cocktail with renowned author Shyam Selvadurai. – A This is Not A Reading Series event presented by Pages Books & Magazines, The House Of Anansi Press, Gladstone Hotel, EYE WEEKLY, and Take Five on CIUT.

In her new novel, Giller Prize finalist and bestselling author Shani Mootoo returns to some of the themes she first explored in her breakout book, Cereus Blooms at Night. Valmiki’s Daughter circles around a well-to-do Trinidadian family, in particular, Valmiki, a renowned doctor and loving if confused father, and his youngest daughter, Viveka, lively, intelligent, and intent on escaping the gilded cage that protects but also smothers her. Father and daughter conceal painful secrets about their sexual identities, and it is Viveka's struggle to discover the truth about herself that threatens to unmask her father and shake the foundations of her family and her delicately calibrated society.

Mootoo writes with an unusual combination of clear-eyed affection and expansive humanity about society and its hierarchies, peeling back layers of prejudice and exposing the complex interaction of race, gender, class, and sexuality. Discerning but non-judgmental, she eases us deep into the fascinating lives of her characters and creates a juicy, sexy, beautiful book, full of the vigorous stuff of life alongside a yearning for transcendence.

Shani Mootoo was born in Ireland and grew up in Trinidad. She has lived in Canada since the early 1980s. Her acclaimed first novel, Cereus Blooms at Night, was published in fourteen countries, and was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award. Her second novel, He Drown She in the Sea, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Mootoo is also an accomplished visual and video artist. She has lived in Vancouver and Edmonton, and now lives in Toronto.

Shyam Selvadurai came to Canada at the age of nineteen from Sri Lanka with his family at the age of nineteen. Funny Boy, his bestselling first novel, won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and, in the U.S., The Lambda Literary Award, and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association. Cinnamon Gardens, his second novel, was shortlisted for the Trillium Award. It has been published in the U.S., the U.K., India, and numerous countries in Europe. Selvadurai lives in Toronto.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Shani Mootoo: Julie Wilson, julie@anansi.ca, (416) 363-4343 ext. 25

This is Not A Reading Series: Chris Reed, tinars@pagesbooks.ca, (416) 598-1447 ext. 221