The Magic of Saida - Paperback

by M. G. Vassanji (Author)

From Giller Prize-winner M. G. Vassanji comes the story of Kamal Punja, son of an African mother and an Indian father, who has been living in Canada for forty years. Despite his material wealth, Kamal finds himself longing for the place of his birth--Africa--and of a girl there he once loved. As a child he was certain that Saida--granddaughter of a great Swahili poet and his constant companion--would become his future wife, but when he was just eleven Kamal's mother sent him to live with his estranged father's family in India. Now, decades later, Kamal journeys back to the village he left--to confront his long-unresolved racial identity and the nightmarish legacy of a broken promise.

Author Biography

M.G. VASSANJI won the Giller Prize for The Book of Secrets and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, and the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction for A Place Within: Rediscovering India. His novel The Assassin's Song was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction. Most recently, his novel Nostalgia was a finalist in Canada Reads 2017.