The Assassin's Song

Last updated
The Assassin's Song
The Assassin's Song cover.png
Author M. G. Vassanji
LanguageEnglish
Genre Literary fiction
Publisher Doubleday in Canada
Knopf in United States
Penguin in India
Publication date
August 21, 2007
Publication placeCanada
Pages336 pp
ISBN 978-0-385-66351-9 (Doubleday)
ISBN   978-1-4000-4217-3 (Knopf)
OCLC 122707173

The Assassin's Song is a novel by M. G. Vassanji, published in 2007 by Doubleday Canada. [1] [2] [3] It is the story of a young Indian boy (Karsan Dargawalla) whose dream is to escape his family's religious legacy. He wants to be ordinary: to go to school, play cricket, talk to girls, and make his own choices. He tries to escape by traveling to the United States for college (at Harvard) and eventually settling in Canada (in B.C.). The novel also contains the in-depth narrative of his ancient forebear.

It was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General's Award, and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. G. Ballard</span> English writer (1930–2009)

James Graham Ballard was an English novelist and short-story writer, satirist and essayist known for psychologically provocative works of fiction that explore the relations between human psychology, technology, sex and mass media. Ballard first became associated with New Wave science fiction for post-apocalyptic novels such as The Drowned World (1962). He later courted controversy with the short-story collection The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which includes the story "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" (1968), and the novel Crash (1973), a story about car-crash fetishists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giller Prize</span> Canadian literary award

The Giller Prize is a literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English the previous year, after an annual juried competition between publishers who submit entries. The prize was established in 1994 by Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife Doris Giller, a former literary editor at the Toronto Star, and is awarded in November of each year along with a cash reward with the winner being presented by the previous year's winning author.

Canadian literature is written in several languages including English, French, and to some degree various Indigenous languages. It is often divided into French- and English-language literatures, which are rooted in the literary traditions of France and Britain, respectively. The earliest Canadian narratives were of travel and exploration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazuo Ishiguro</span> British writer and Nobel Laureate (b. 1954)

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro is a Japanese-born British novelist, screenwriter, musician, and short-story writer. He is one of the most critically acclaimed contemporary fiction authors writing in English, having been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation, the Swedish Academy described Ishiguro as a writer "who, in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world".

<i>The Blind Assassin</i> 2000 novel by Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin is a novel by the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It was first published by McClelland and Stewart in 2000. The book is set in the fictional Ontario town of Port Ticonderoga and in Toronto. It is narrated from the present day, referring to previous events that span the twentieth century but mostly the 1930s and 1940s. It is a work of historical fiction with the major events of Canadian history forming an important backdrop, for example, the On-to-Ottawa Trek and a 1934 Communist rally at Maple Leaf Gardens. Greater verisimilitude is given by a series of newspaper articles commenting on events and on the novel's characters from a distance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. G. Vassanji</span> Canadian author (born 1950)

Moyez G. Vassanji is a Canadian novelist and editor, who writes under the name M. G. Vassanji. Vassanji's work has been translated into several languages. As of 2020, he has published nine novels, as well as two short-fiction collections and two nonfiction books. Vassanji's writings, which have received considerable critical acclaim, often focus on issues of colonial history, migration, diaspora, citizenship, gender and ethnicity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Mackandal</span> Haitian Maroon leader

François Mackandal was a Haitian Maroon leader in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. He is sometimes described as a Haitian vodou priest, or houngan. For joining Maroons to kill slave owners in Saint-Domingue, he was captured and burned alive by French colonial authorities. His actions were seen as a precursor to the Haitian Revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth J. Harvey</span> Canadian novelist, filmmaker, and journalist

Kenneth Joseph Thomas Harvey is a Canadian writer and filmmaker from Newfoundland and Labrador.

John Gould is a Canadian short story writer from Victoria, British Columbia. He is most noted for his 2003 book Kilter: 55 fictions, which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

<i>Dead on Target</i> (The Hardy Boys) 1987 novel by Franklin W. Dixon

Dead on Target is the first book in The Hardy Boys Casefiles series of detective novels. It was first published in the year 1987.

Cyril Dabydeen is a Guyana-born Canadian writer of Indian descent. He grew up in Rose Hall sugar plantation with the sense of Indian indenture rooted in his family background. He is a cousin of the UK writer David Dabydeen.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2007.

<i>The In-Between World of Vikram Lall</i> 2003 novel by M. G. Vassanji

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall is a novel by M. G. Vassanji, published in 2003 by Doubleday Canada. The novel won the Scotiabank Giller Prize that year and narrates a story of Vikram Lall in the colonial and post-colonial Kenya. The title for the novel also inspired the title for Elizabeth Nunez's novel Anna In-Between, published in 2009.

<i>Tree of Smoke</i> 2007 novel by Denis Johnson

Tree of Smoke is a 2007 novel by American author Denis Johnson. The novel follows a man named Skip Sands who joins the CIA in 1965 and begins working in Vietnam during the American involvement there. The time frame of the novel is from 1963 to 1970, with a coda set in 1983. One of the novel's protagonists is Bill Houston, who was the main character in Johnson's 1983 debut novel Angels. Tree of Smoke won the National Book Award for Fiction and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Chariandy</span> Canadian writer (born 1969)

David John Chariandy is a Canadian writer and academic, presently working as a Professor of English literature at the University of Toronto. His 2017 novel Brother won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and Toronto Book Award.

<i>The Book of Secrets</i> (novel) Book by M. G. Vassanji

The Book of Secrets is a novel by M. G. Vassanji, published in 1994.

<i>No New Land</i>

No New Land is a novel by M. G. Vassanji, published in 1991. The action is largely set in Dar es Salaam and Toronto. The title is derivited from Lawrence Durrell's novel The Alexandria Quartet, in which he translates Constantine P. Cavafy's "The City".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tui T. Sutherland</span> Venezuelan-American childrens book author

Tui Tamara Sutherland is an American children's book author who has written more than 60 books under her own name and under several pen names. In 2009, she won $46,200 over three games on Jeopardy! She is best known for writing the Wings of Fire series of epic dragon fantasy novels. Sutherland's books have sold over 15 million copies.

Mark Frutkin is a Canadian novelist and poet. He has published ten books of fiction, three books of poetry, as well as two works of non-fiction and a book of essays. In 2022, his novel The Artist and the Assassin won the Silver Medal in the IPPY Awards, in the category of literary fiction. In 2007, his novel, Fabrizio's Return, won the Trillium Prize for Best Book in Ontario and the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book. In 1988, his novel, Atmospheres Apollinaire, was short-listed for a Governor General's Award and was also short-listed for the Trillium Award, as well as the Ottawa-Carleton Book Award. His works have been shortlisted for the Ottawa Book Awards five times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esi Edugyan</span> Canadian novelist (born 1978)

Esi Edugyan is a Canadian novelist. She has twice won the Giller Prize, for her novels Half-Blood Blues (2011) and Washington Black (2018).

References

  1. "The Assassin's Song by M. G. Vassanji". Publishers Weekly . 2007-06-18. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  2. "The Assassin's Song" . Booklist . August 2007. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  3. "The Assassin's Song". Kirkus Reviews . 2007-07-15. Retrieved 2024-08-12.