The Hero's Walk, the second novel by Anita Rau Badami, is a big, intimate book, the kind that seldom strays beyond the doors of a single residence. Set in the sweltering streets of Toturpuram, a small city on the Bay of Bengal, The Hero's Walk, which won the 2001 Commonwealth Writers Prize for best book in Canada and the Caribbean, explores the troubled life of Sripathi Rao, an unremarkable, middle-aged family man and advertising copywriter.

As The Hero's Walk opens, Sripathi's life is already in a state of thorough disrepair. His mother, a domineering, half-senile octogenarian, sits like a tyrant at the top of his household, frightening off his sister's suitors, chastising him for not having become a doctor, and brandishing her hypochondria and paranoia with sinister abandon. It is Sripathi's children, however, who pose the biggest problems: Arun, his son, is becoming dangerously involved in political activism, and Maya, his daughter, broke off her arranged engagement to a local man in order to wed a white Canadian. Sripathi's troubles come to a head when Maya and her husband are killed in an automobile accident, leaving their 7- year-old daughter, Nandana, without Canadian kin. Sripathi travels to Canada and brings his granddaughter home, while his family is shaken by a series of calamities that may, eventually, bring peace to their lives. --Jack Illingworth


From Publishers Weekly
The flowering of young writers of Indian origin continues with Badami's deeply resonant debut novel, which places her in the ranks of writers like Jhumpa Lahiri, Akhil Sharma and Manil Suri. The scion of a once wealthy, now down-at-the-heels Brahmin family, Sripathi Rao lives in the crumbling family manse in a small city on the Bay of Bengal. At 57, Sripathi is ill-tempered, emotionally constipated and a domestic tyrant a man riding for a fall. He struggles at a mediocre job to support his dragon of a mother, unmarried but lovelorn 44-year-old sister, subservient wife and layabout son. It's the perfect setup for a domestic comedy, until fate intervenes with the sudden deaths of his daughter, Maya, and her husband, in Vancouver. Guilt-ridden for having refused to communicate with Maya because she humiliated him by marrying out of her caste and race, Sripathi brings his seven-year-old orphaned granddaughter, Nandana, back to India. Badami's portrait of a bereft and bewildered child is both restrained and heartrending; Nandana has remained mute since her parents died, believing that they will someday return. In his own way, Sripathi is also mute, unable to express his grief and longing for his dead daughter. This poignant motif is perfectly balanced by Badami's eye for the ridiculous and her witty, pointed depiction of the contradictions of Indian society. She also writes candidly about the woes of underdevelopment the "stench of fish, human beings, diesel oil, food frying," poor drains, chaotic traffic and pervasive corruption. In the course of the narrative, everyone in Sripathi's family undergoes a life change, and in the moving denouement, reconciliation grows out of tragedy, and Sripathi understands "the chanciness of existence, and the hope and the loss that always accompanied life." A bestseller in Canada, where it was a Kiriyamaa Pacific Rim Book Award finalist, Badami's novel will delight those on the lookout for works by writers on the crest of the Indian wave. Author tour. (Apr. 27) Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-An attractive jacket pulls readers into this well-told story of a struggling family in a small city in modern India. The Raos' glory days are over, epitomized by their large home that has begun to crumble and mildew, now surrounded by taller apartment buildings. Mr. Rao, the central character, is a self-centered man made unhappy by his reversal of fortune and by his resentful wife, a radical son, a shrewish mother, and an unmarried 40-ish sister, all of whom he barely supports as a small-time advertising copywriter. They all live together, with greater or lesser degrees of grace. Mr. Rao also has a daughter in Canada from whom he became estranged when she broke off an arranged marriage and instead married a white man she met while in graduate school. Her seven-year-old daughter comes to India to live with her grandparents when her parents die in an auto accident. Nandana has not said a word to anyone since the accident, and moving to a new country and living with these odd strangers is difficult for her. The plot revolves around the life of the family as part of Indian culture, and how Nandana and her grandfather both begin to adjust to their circumstances. Each chapter is written from the viewpoint of a different character, including little Nandana-possibly the best-drawn character in a novel filled with fine characterizations. The Rao family could be anyone's family, and they all find some peace and hope for the future at book's end.Judy McAloon, Potomac Library, Prince William County, VACopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Life in the Big House on Brahmin Street is spiraling downward. When Sripathi is 16, his father dies, leaving him with a heavily mortgaged house, care of his mother and infant sister, and gambling debts. Sripathi struggles through, eventually adding a wife and two children of his own to the household. It's now four decades since his father's death. His mother complains incessantly, his son is involved in every social protest imaginable, and he's been unable to find a suitable husband for his sister. And then things get worse: his daughter, Maya (his pride and joy before she left home for a Canadian university and shamed the family by reneging on an arranged marriage), has been killed with her Canadian husband in an automobile accident. Their daughter, seven-year-old Nandana Baker, must now make her home in India with grandparents she has never met. Somehow, the young Nandana manages to thaw Sripathi's hardened heart and give the rest of the family the power to stand up to the tyrannical family matriarch. This touching story of a family under intense pressure is especially recommended for public libraries serving a large Asian community, but the universal themes will give this broad appeal. Debbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati State Technical & Community Coll., OH Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Sripathi Rao is self-centered and self-important, even though he lives with his patient wife, his unmarried sister, his harridan of a mother, and his rebellious son in the crumbling family manse in southern India. He has another child, too, his daughter Maya, whom he has not spoken to in nearly a decade, when she went to Canada to study and married a fellow student. But Maya and her husband are killed in a car accident, and Sripathi must bring their seven-year-old daughter, Nandana, back to India with him. In chapters that alternate Sripathi's and Nandana's point of view, and occasionally that of other family members, a rich embroidery of familial tensions, sorrows, and desires emerges, framed in the soggy heat or endless wet. Nandana, even when silent, brings life to this hard-pressed family; we see Sripathi slowly discover respect and affection not only for his wife and son, but even for his daughter's memory and, finally, for himself. Rich in sensuous detail, both sweet and bitter, and an almost cinematic sense of color and emotion. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In a small, dusty Indian town near the Bay of Bengal, a middle-aged man lives in his crumbling ancestral home, uncomfortably aware of the encroaching modern world. Sripathi Rao's life hasn't turned out the way he thought it would: his job as a copywriter is unrewarding; his old widowed mother nags him; his unmarried forty-one-year-old sister is on the verge of sexual combustion; his only son resists gainful employment; and his silently resentful wife blames him for the estrangement of their daughter, who lives in Canada." "Then tragedy strikes: Sripathi's daughter and her husband have been killed in a car accident. Their seven-year-old child, Nandana, is about to become Sripathi's reluctant ward. Yet Nandana has never met her grandfather, has never been to India, and hasn't spoken a word since the tragedy. When Sripathi brings Nandana to India, life suddenly changes for everyone in the family, and the worn threads of Sripathi's world begin to unravel. Small, silent Nandana may be the one person who can bring harmony into the house and hope back into her grandfather's life."--BOOK JACKET.

SYNOPSIS

In a small, dusty Indian town near the Bay of Bengal, a middle-aged man lives in his crumbling ancestral home, uncomfortably aware of the encroaching modern world. Sripathi Rao's life hasn't turned out the way he thought it would: his job as a copywriter is unrewarding; his old widowed mother nags him; his unmarried forty-one-year-old sister is on the verge of sexual combustion; his only son resists gainful employment; and his silently resentful wife blames him for the estrangement of their daughter, who lives in Canada.

Then tragedy strikes: Sripathi's daughter and her husband have been killed in a car accident. Their seven-year-old child, Nandana, is about to become Sripathi's reluctant ward. Yet Nandana has never met her grandfather, has never been to India, and hasn't spoken a word since the tragedy. When Sripathi brings Nandana to India, life suddenly changes for everyone in the family, and the worn threads of Sripathi's world begin to unravel. Small, silent Nandana may be the one person who can bring harmony into the house and hope back into her grandfather's life.

Steeped in the colors, customs, and sensuality of India, The Hero's Walk presents a family in all its messy, glorious contradictions. With insight, humor, and compassion, The Hero's Walk shows the potential for heroism in ordinary lives.

Author Biography: Born and educated in India, Anita Rau Badami has published short stories in numerous literary magazines and journals and is the author of Tamarind Mem, a novel. She is the recipient of the Marian Engel Award, and The Hero's Walk was a finalist for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize.

Anita Rau Badami lives in Vancouver with her husband and son.

FROM THE CRITICS

Boston Herald

This compelling novel by Indian-born Canadian writers Badami is notable for its character studies and rich descriptions.

People

In a twisty tale of shifting perspectives and resonant prose, Hero makes old values seem new again.

Elle Magazine

The Hero's Walk is a novel of broad and lovely scope...

Publishers Weekly

The flowering of young writers of Indian origin continues with Badami's deeply resonant debut novel, which places her in the ranks of writers like Jhumpa Lahiri, Akhil Sharma and Manil Suri. The scion of a once wealthy, now down-at-the-heels Brahmin family, Sripathi Rao lives in the crumbling family manse in a small city on the Bay of Bengal. At 57, Sripathi is ill-tempered, emotionally constipated and a domestic tyrant a man riding for a fall. He struggles at a mediocre job to support his dragon of a mother, unmarried but lovelorn 44-year-old sister, subservient wife and layabout son. It's the perfect setup for a domestic comedy, until fate intervenes with the sudden deaths of his daughter, Maya, and her husband, in Vancouver. Guilt-ridden for having refused to communicate with Maya because she humiliated him by marrying out of her caste and race, Sripathi brings his seven-year-old orphaned granddaughter, Nandana, back to India. Badami's portrait of a bereft and bewildered child is both restrained and heartrending; Nandana has remained mute since her parents died, believing that they will someday return. In his own way, Sripathi is also mute, unable to express his grief and longing for his dead daughter. This poignant motif is perfectly balanced by Badami's eye for the ridiculous and her witty, pointed depiction of the contradictions of Indian society. She also writes candidly about the woes of underdevelopment the "stench of fish, human beings, diesel oil, food frying," poor drains, chaotic traffic and pervasive corruption. In the course of the narrative, everyone in Sripathi's family undergoes a life change, and in the moving denouement, reconciliation grows out of tragedy, and Sripathi understands "the chanciness of existence, and the hope and the loss that always accompanied life." A bestseller in Canada, where it was a Kiriyamaa Pacific Rim Book Award finalist, Badami's novel will delight those on the lookout for works by writers on the crest of the Indian wave. Author tour. (Apr. 27) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal