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Fiction

• CBC Canada Day recommended reads

"An ambitious novel structured as a double album(...).The novel
paints a multicultural portrait of Montreal as characters converge on the city from around the world: India, Vietnam, England, Ireland. (...) Anita Anand has created an impressive opus."
— Neil Smith, author of Jones"From the seed of a love-match marriage in Partition-era India, people from multiple cultures collide and converge amid the ferment of their new home’s late-20th century nationalist movement. (An) ambitious act of narrative plate-spinning that Anand pulls off with aplomb. As the title’s echo of Hugh MacLennan hints, A Convergence of Solitudes
presents a new way of looking at Quebec." — Ian McGillis, The Montreal Gazette"A serious and ambitious book that manages to weave together complicated strands of personal
and cultural history, A Convergence of Solitudes is both a beautiful and compelling contemporary
Canadian novel." — Valerie Mills-Mild, The Miramichi Reader“A polyphonic novel that flits in and out of the consciousnesses of a central cast of characters, all of whom are united in a common search for belonging and meaning.”
— Steven Beattie"Refracted through the lens of Quebec's years of turbulence and hope, A Convergence of Solitudes tells the truth about the world: there were never only two solitudes, but many. By gathering us all, atoms of light, Anita Anand has focused the blazing beauty
of our richness and possibility, transmuting us in our yearning and our pain into shining creatures of love. This may be the essential story of our place and our time: the world, once and always."
— Elise Moser, author of Lily and Taylor"(...) the pieces are drawn together compellingly and satisfyingly, moving between decades and characters and continents to culminate in what feels like an epic.
— Kerry Clare, Pickle Me This"L’autrice montréalaise livre ici un bijou, une multitude d’histoires, une convergence de solitudes. La dichotomie franco-anglo domina longtemps le paysage culturel de notre bout de planète. C’est bon, c’est beau, ça parle d’identités, de se connaître, de doutes, de sentiments d’appartenances, de nationalisme, d’immigration, de langue, de culture, de relations familiales, de qui on est, qui on veut être, comment on s’y rend."
— Steve Montpetit"While its expansive, sociopolitical canvas gives this novel depth and gravitas, its strength lies in its depiction of tangled human bonds, which, despite strong friction, hold—even heal. The book’s suspense, fuelled by the movement between the multiple stories, makes it an entertaining read. A Convergence of Solitudes is a complex tribute to immigrant grit, the pains of growing up, and the possibility of diverse, self-sculpted identities."
— Veena Gokhale, Herizons

Winner, 2015 QWF Concordia University First Book Award49th Shelf Most Anticipated 2015 Spring Fiction SelectionNominated for the Blue Metropolis/Conseil des arts de Montréal Literary Diversity Prize for a First Publication.Shortlisted for the 2016 Re-Lit Award“Anand’s writing—natural, inquisitive and generously circumstantial—gives gravitas to our individual abnormalities. She exhumes the truth found in the liminality of life, as if saying what you experience is not the same as what I experience but we are both drowning in the same invisible panic.” - Anupa Mistry, National Post“Full of sparely drawn yet complex characters, and situations that are equal parts poignant and absurd, these stories repeatedly demonstrate a rare knack for tackling heavy subjects—race and racism, identity, infidelity, mental illness—without heavy-handedness.” - Ian McGillis, Montreal Gazette“In all of her stories, Anand shows a keen awareness and desire to begin conversations about identity politics and thinly-veiled aggressions and prejudices, especially as they relate to intimate relationships. Overall, this collection is cohesive and rhythmic, and showcases a unique, perceptive, and sensitive narrative voice.” - Jess Shane, Broken Pencil“This is an impressive first collection.” - Toronto Star“This is a wise, assured and wonderfully intelligent collection that announces the arrival of an exciting new talent.” - Dennis Bock, author of Going Home Again“These stories have this quiet fire, these cool fire surprises, stylish moves done deftly by a writer with light touch and dark intentions.” - Cary Tennis, author of Citizens of the Dream“These stories are full of undercurrents that disturb the surface, and these disturbances, in their turn, dazzle as they reflect light.” - Elise Moser, author of Lily and Taylor and Because I Have Loved and Hidden It."Anand has a fine sensibility and an ear not just for dialogue, but also for situation – for parsing the almost invisible shifts in dynamic and power that happen between ordinary people." - Anna Leventhal, Montreal Review of Books.
"Swing in the House shows Anand's remarkable talent for observing people in their natural habitats, and her ability to put that on the page without losing anything in translation is mind blowing" - Nicole Brewer, Parenthetical.

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Translation

As the Andes Disappeared
By Caroline Dawson
Book*Hug Press, 2023This expansive coming-of-age autobiographical novel probes the plurality of identity, elucidating the interwoven complexities of immigrating to a new country. As the Andes Disappeared tenderly reflects the journey of millions and is a beautiful ode to family commitment and the importance of home—however layered that may be.The original French version, Là où je me terre, was a resounding success in Québec. It was shortlisted for the Prix des Libraires in 2021, won the Prix littéraire des collégiens in 2022 and has been adapted for the stage Théâtre La Bordée.“The power of this largely autobiographical novel lies in its refusal to let anger give rise to gratitude. Nor is gratitude permitted to soften the rage of knowing that the comfort of the rich continues to be built with the egregiously paid labour of those who cannot push back.” —Le Devoir“There are books that make us better people, and Dawson’s is among them.” —Michel Marc Bouchard, le Combat national des livres de Radio-Canada

**Lightness **
By Fanie Demeule
Linda Leith Publishing, March 2020Told with startling, unapologetic honesty and in a haunting, minimalist style, Lightness is the story of a woman's profound sense of alienation, beginning with her own physical body and its desires. In this original and moving take on anorexia, we go deep into the mind of the narrator as she carries out her secret, prolonged hunger strike against the constraints of her life.The original French version of Lightness (Déterrer les os) won the Best First Novel Prize at the Biennale littéraire des Cèdres in 2018 and was adapted for stage at the Centre du Théâtre d'Aujourd'hui in Montreal.Shortlisted for the Miramichi Reader's "The Very Best Book Awards 2020" - Best First Book."At only 26, Fanie Demeule's sharp pen has crafted a shocking first novel."
-Châtelaine

Finalist for the 2018 John Glassco Translation Prize.A young woman from Montreal follows the geese to the Inuit North in this deeply-felt witnessing of contemporary Indigenous life, as shaped by decades of colonial rule and government neglect. Having worked in the North for years, Juliana Léveillé-Trudel offers a portrait of a people undaunted by institutionalized racism, but in many cases broken by domestic violence, corporate mining, and the corrupting presence of summer workers up from the South in search of big paycheques. Delivered across two searing monologues, Nirliit is a testament to a people’s perseverance as much as it is an apology by those who inflicted those circumstances upon them. Léveillé-Trudel transcends historical divisions to make a meaningful, individual connection.

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About

Anita Anand was born in Montreal. She moved back and forth between her hometown and such places as the Bronx; Bedfordshire, England; and Richmond, B.C. In every neighbourhood where she has lived, she has been the only person her age of Indian origin. Her writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Frostwriting and the Louisiana Review.

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EVENTS