THE EVER AFTER OF ASHWIN RAO

In a departure from the territory covered in her historical epic first novel The Toss of a Lemon, in her stunning new novel Padma turns her considerable talent, intellect and empathy to contemporary times, concerns and fears.

In 2004, Ashwin Rao, an Indian psychologist, comes to Canada to do what he calls a "study of comparative grief." In this year, two suspects—finally—are on trial for the 1985 Air India jet bombing, among the most fatal episodes in aviation history. All 329 people aboard were killed when their plane blew apart over the Atlantic. Ashwin is interviewing those who lost loved ones in the attack, though he neglects to tell them that he, too, had family members on that plane. Then he meets Seth Sethuratnam, a physics professor in a small university town, who, in the course of comforting a close friend though his bereavement, became a devotee of a popular Indian guru. Ashwin finds himself unexpectedly embroiled with his subjects when Seth and his family undergo several shocks in this strange year. As a witness to their crises and a holder for their secrets, Aswhin comes to confront his own losses. THE EVER AFTER OF ASHWIN RAO imagines the emotional consequences of a real-life act of terror, grappling with what we learn to live with and what we can live without. Padma's wonderful first novel The Toss of a Lemon (2008) was published to critical acclaim in Canada, Spain, Italy, Holland, UK, Australia and Turkey, and was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book Award (Canada and the Caribbean). Padma's work has received many awards, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as residencies at MacDowell, Sacatar and the Banff Center for the Arts. She won the 2007 Boston Review Short Story Prize, and other of her stories and articles have been published in journals and magazines across Canada and the US.