Book
Bone and bread / Saleema Nawaz.
When sisters Beena and Sadhana are orphaned as teenagers and sent to live with their Sikh uncle in Montreal's Hasidic community, their lives take divergent courses as they deal with their grief in different ways.
Beena and Sadhana are sisters who share a bond that could only have been shaped by the most unusual of childhoods--and by shared tragedy. Orphaned as teenagers, they have grown up under the exasperated watch of their Sikh uncle, who runs a bagel shop in Montreal's Hasidic community of Mile End. Together, they try to make sense of the rich, confusing brew of values, rituals, and beliefs that form their inheritance. Yet as they grow towards adulthood, their paths begin to diverge. Beena catches the attention of one of the "bagel boys" and finds herself pregnant at sixteen, while Sadhana drives herself to perfectionism and anorexia.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781770890091 (trade paperback) :
- Physical Description: 448 pages ; 21 cm
- Publisher: Toronto, Ontario : House of Anansi Press, 2013.
- Copyright: ©2013.
Content descriptions
| Awards Note: | Canada Reads 2016 finalist. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Sikh Canadians > Fiction. Sisters > Fiction Orphans > Fiction. Grief > Fiction. Guilt > Fiction. Sisters > Death > Psychological aspects > Fiction. Asian Canadians > Fiction. Mile-End (Montréal, Québec) > Fiction. |
| Genre: | Domestic fiction. |
Available copies
- 25 of 25 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect.
- 1 of 1 copy available at Radium Hot Springs Public Library. (Show)
Holds
- 0 current holds with 25 total copies.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radium Hot Springs Public Library | FIC NAW (Text) | 35130000034623 | Canadiana | Volume hold | Available | - |
| 100 Mile House Branch | NAW (Text) | 33923005632579 | General Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Beaver Valley Public Library | F NAW (Text) | 35144000155387 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Big Lake Branch | NAW (Text) | 33923005667419 | General Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Burns Lake Public Library | AF NAW (Text) | 35198000554957 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Castlegar Public Library | FIC NAW (Text) | 35146001811033 | Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Chetwynd Public Library | FIC NAW (Text) | 35222000936731 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Christina Lake | FIC NAW (Text) | 35142002620929 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Dawson Creek Municipal Public Library | F NAW (Text) | DCL153891 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
| Elkford Public Library | FC NAW (Text) | 35170000401992 | Adult Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 October #2
With an elegance and fluidity of prose rare in first novels, Canadian writer Nawaz presents a masterful examination of the ties that bind people together and the quiet endurance required for sustaining those bonds through the countless travails of life and death. Beena remains bereaved, but she is attempting to preserve the burgeoning relationships that have allowed her to cope with the death of her sister, Sadhana. In the wake of this tragedy, Beena reflects on their childhood together after the death of their parents, remembering the tumultuous nature of their sisterhood and the many struggles that led to their final fight. Mingled grief and guilt lead Beena to return to her sister's Montreal apartment to investigate what exactly went on during Sadhana's last days and uncover the truth behind her death. Poignant, engrossing, and tender, Nawaz's work explores the lifelong attempt to protect those we love and how we learn to rally for those dear to us. Copyright 2016 Booklist Reviews. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2016 October #1
Two sistersâclose when they were children but divided by pain and problems as they grew into adulthoodâhave struggled ceaselessly with the bonds that connect them. There's no shortage of issues in Canadian writer Nawaz's (Mother Superior, 2008) first full-length work of fiction. Race, illegal immigration, anorexia, and single parenting are just some of the lesser tributaries swelling the main storytelling flow, devoted to the complicated relationship between sisters Beena and Sadhana Singh. Born of a Punjabi Sikh father and an Irish-born American mother, the girls live over the family businessâa bagel shopâin Montreal. Their father's sudden death is followed by an arson attack on the building that engenders anxiety issues in younger sister Sadhana. Then their mother dies as the result of a celebratory meal prepared by the girls. Now, under the not-so-tender care of an uncle, the teenagers begin to go off the rails: 14-year-old Sadhana develops a life-threatening eating disorder while Beena, at 16, gets pregnant. Packed full of both content and introspective narration, the novel is ponderous and often downbeat, shuttling back and forth between the girls' pasts and Beena's present as she copes with the aftermath of Sadhana's death, announced on the first page, for which her son, Quinn, blames her. As Beena sets about the sad business of sorting through her sister's possessions, additional plot points emerge involving Quinn, the father he's never known, and the fight to protect an immigrant family Sadhana was helping. Nawaz brings serious commitment to her ambitiously large tale, but its sluggishness and cast of cool characters work against the reader's involvement, while the prose, often awkwardly intenseâ"More and more, regret has simply become the shadow I would cast if I stood in the sun"âsometimes makes matters worse. An overload of materialâand pagesâobscures the sincere heart of this earnest story. Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2016 September #3
Nawaz's well-crafted debut novel is a somber tale of hidden secrets, separated sisters, and family stories that, when left unspoken, can eat a person from the inside out. Orphaned at a young age, sisters Beena and Sadhana Singh build their adult lives between Ottawa and Montreal, but Beena spends year after year watching Sadhana "disappear, little by little." After a lifelong struggle with an eating disorder, Sadhana dies of a heart attack at the age of 32. Beena, a single mother, is left alone to wrestle with her grief, as well as the secrets of her son Quinn's parentage of Sadhana's lover. The story is told in alternating timelinesâshifting between the months directly following Sadhana's death and the years leading up to it, until the two converge, and Beena learns the truth about her sister's death. The novel's great strength is Nawaz's depiction of the sisters' relationship. In poignant but never flowery prose, she is able to portray the depth of a familial bond with accuracy and empathy. The relationship is not one of uncomplicated devotion but peppered with the jealousy, competition, and frustration that are so recognizable as ingredients in the love between siblings. Agent: Martha Magor Webb, The McDermid Agency. (Nov.)
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