Anosh Irani, the masterful, bestselling author of The Parcel and The Song of Kahunsha, knows of what he writes.

Twenty years ago, to the mystification of family and friends, Irani left India for Vancouver, Canada, a city and a country completely foreign to him. His plan was both grand and impractical: he would reinvent himself as a writer. Miraculously, he did just that, publishing critically acclaimed novels and plays set in his beloved hometown of Mumbai. But this uprooting did not come without a steep price — one that Irani for the first time directly explores in this book.

In these stunning stories and one "half truth" (a semi-fictional meditation on the experience of being an immigrant) we meet a swimming instructor determined to reenact John Cheever's iconic short story The Swimmer in the pools of Mumbai; a famous Indian chef who breaks down on a New York talk show; a gangster's wife who believes a penguin at the Mumbai zoo is the reincarnation of her lost child; an illegal immigrant in Vancouver who plays a fateful game of cricket; and a kindly sweets-shop owner whose hope for a new life in Canada leads to a terrible choice. The book starts and ends with a gorgeous, emotionally raw "translation" to the page of the author's own life between worlds, blurring the line between fiction and fact. (From Knopf Canada)

Anosh Irani is a Vancouver-based novelist and playwright. His novels and plays are all at least partially set in the streets of Mumbai, the place of his birth, and tell stories of those often marginalized by society.

Irani's novel The Song of Kahunsha was defended on Canada Reads 2007 by Donna Morrissey. His fourth novel, The Parcel, was shortlisted for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award for English-language fiction.

"One story is about an illegal immigrant who only feels at home when he's playing cricket. In another there's a young boy who, while born in the country, longs for love and acceptance and that is home. The characters in this book are all trying to find home in some way. There's different types of longing and different types of home.

"One of the stories in the book is a 'half truth.' It is a semi-fictional mediation of sorts. With this story, it came out of me so raw. I wouldn't say it's autobiographical — because it's still a short story — but it's deeply personal. I had no idea that this was in me or how I felt. I was quite disturbed after writing it.

"I've been here in Canada for over two decades and I'm still feeling displaced. What does it mean? Am I ever going to find home? This sense of longing for home is centuries old and a very primal thing. When we don't find it, at least when I didn't find it, it can be very displacing."