The award winning author M.G. Vassanji discusses his new novel, The Magic of Saida (Doubleday, 2012), with Joseph Planta.

The Magic of Saida by M.G. Vassanji (Doubleday, 2012). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Magic of Saida

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

The author M.G. Vassanji joins me again. He’s got a new novel out: The Magic of Saida. He takes the reader to the land of his birth, Tanzania, where he sets this book. Kamal is a successful doctor in Edmonton, and in his middle age, he decides to go back to Tanzania to find the girl he loved when he was younger, Saida. The book is described as ‘breathtakingly beautiful,’ ‘a shocking novel of belonging, longing, broken promises, and race.’ It’s also described as ‘complex,’ so we’ll get Dr. Vassanji to tell us about this book. M.G. Vassanji has written six novels, two collections of stories, and two works of non-fiction. His novels have won many prizes including the Commonwealth Writers Prize, and his book, A Place Within: Rediscovering India, which he was on last with, received the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction. His books have been shortlisted for the Giller Prize, which he’s won twice, the Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. www.mgvassanji.com is his website. This new book is published by Doubleday. He’s in Vancouver today, but he’ll be back in a couple of weeks for two events at the Vancouver International Writers Festival. Both are on Wednesday, 17 October 2012. The first at 6pm, on a panel celebrating Doubleday’s 75th Anniversary, and the second on a panel entitled ‘Uprooted’ hosted by Lawrence Hill. That’s at 8.00pm. Visit www.writersfest.bc.ca. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, M.G. Vassanji; Dr. Vassanji, good morning.

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