After far too long an absence, the writer and visual artist Anita Rau Badami makes a triumphant return to Calgary with her highly anticipated new novel—fifteen years in the writing!—Asha in Her Garden. Her previous novel, The Hero’s Walk, was a Canada-Reads finalist defended by actor Vinay Virmani who, in this clip, described Badami’s writing as timeless in its nuanced exploration of family dynamics and intergenerational conflict. We can’t wait to experience Badami’s storytelling gifts first-hand in this conversation, hosted by Kirti Bhadresa, which includes an audience Q & A and book signing, fueled by Owls Nest Books. You can order copies of her new book, plus her award-winning backlist, here.
Kirti Bhadresa
Lively Conversation
Libations Bar, with non-alcoholic options
Audience Q&A
Book Signing
75 minutes. No intermission
Penguin Random House Canada
Anita Rau Badami’s first novel was the bestseller Tamarind Mem. 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 a finalist for the City of Vancouver Book Award. Her fourth novel, Tell It to the Trees, was longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the Quebec Writers’ Federation Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. The recipient of the Marian Engel Award for a woman writer in mid-career, Badami is also a visual artist. She lives in Montreal.
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 • McNally Robinson’s ‘Author of the Month’
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. The magnificent tree also marks the spot where—twenty years ago, on the evening of her 50th birthday—Asha was knocked unconscious by an unsavoury drug-dealing acquaintance of her wayward son.
Now, as Asha turns 70, the maple tree has reached its end and must be cut down. In its shadow, Asha finds herself remembering the attack of twenty years back and haunted by an earlier, shocking tragedy in India, one that caused her to flee the country of her birth. As Asha re-examines herself, her reconfigured garden, and her relations with friends, enemies, and loved ones (“two children from the same body – mine – and each a complete stranger”), she unearths new clarity about who she is and what might be required of her now—a vision with the power to transform her life.
Anita Rau Badami delights us in this big-hearted, compulsively readable and relatable novel about mysteries, ambitions, misunderstandings and miracles that ricochet and echo through a close-knit family and the woman at its centre.
Kirti Bhadresa
Lively Conversation
Libations Bar, with non-alcoholic options
Audience Q&A
Book Signing
75 minutes. No intermission
Penguin Random House Canada
Kirti Bhadresa lives in Calgary, Alberta on Treaty 7 territory. Her first book, a short story collection entitled An Astonishment of Stars was published in October 2024 by ECW Press. An Astonishment of Stars was on the CBC Most Anticipated list and went on to become an indie bestseller. It was a 2025 Writers’ Guild of Alberta Fiction Finalist, was longlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize and won the 2026 Alberta Short Story Collection prize.
In the spirit of reconciliation, we acknowledge that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Iyarhe Nakoda Nations, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta District 6, and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.
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