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Translated from the Gibberish
Translated from the Gibberish: Seven Stories and One Half Truth | Anosh Irani
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Here are seven superb, subtle, surprising stories that show, through a prism of unforgettable characters, what it means to live between two worlds: India and Canada. 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. Translated from the Gibberish confirms Anosh Irani as a unique, inventive, vitally important voice in contemporary fiction.
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Lindy
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The title piece is a meditative autobiographical essay in 2 parts, bookending artful short stories in the middle. Irani is a masterful storyteller. I prefer the fictional parts, mostly because of the tragic characters: gangsters in Mumbai, a celebrity chef in NYC, an impoverished circus clown, an illegal immigrant in Vancouver. Mr Molt, about stealing a penguin from a zoo in Mumbai, is my favourite. #Audiobook read by the author. #Canadian

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Lindy
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He left with a bounce in his step. You could call it a limp, but Raju preferred to think of it as a bounce.

Soubhiville I love this title! 5y
Lindy @Soubhiville Yes, I do too. It‘s the title story in this collection, and the only one I haven‘t enjoyed so far. (I‘m at the midpoint.) But the final chapter is Part 2 of Translated from the Gibberish; perhaps I need that piece to appreciate it. 5y
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