Toronto: Doubleday Canada. Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket. 2006. First Edition. Hardcover. 0385662289 . Only slight wear. ; A bright, solid book. Half dustjacket (as issued by publisher) wraps around over pictorial paper covered boards featuring the face of a child. ; 8.20 X 5.70 X 0.80 inches; 311 pages; "It is 1993 and Bombay is on the verge of being torn apart by racial violence. Ten-year-old Chamdi has rarely ventured outside his orphanage, and entertains an idyllic fantasy of what the city is like beyond its garden walls – a paradise he calls Kahunsha, “the city of no sadness.” But when he runs away to search for his long-lost father, he finds himself thrust into the chaos of the streets, alone, possessing only the blood-stained cloth he was left in as a baby. There Chamdi meets Sumdi and Guddi, brother and sister who beg in order to provide for their sick mother, and the three become fast friends.Fueled only by a desire to find his father and the dream that Bombay will someday become Kahunsha, Chamdi struggles for survival on its brutal streets. But when he is caught up in the beginnings of the savage violence that will soon engulf the city, his dreams confront reality.Moving, poignant, and wonderfully rich in the sights and sounds of Bombay, The Song of Kahunsha is a compelling story of hopes and dreams, and of the fragility of childhood innocence." .

Synopsis

Anosh Irani was born and brought up in Bombay, India, and moved to Vancouver in 1998 to become a full-time writer. He is the author of the acclaimed novel The Cripple and His Talismans . His first full-length play, The Matka King , premiered at the Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver, in 2003. His new play, Bombay Blac k, was produced in Toronto in 2006 by Cahoots Theatre Projects and received the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. In an interview with The Georgia Straight , Irani discusses how the Zoroastrian Parsi community he lived in was affected by the riots: "One night the Muslims and Hindus had a street fight right outside the gates of our compound. At one point, they wanted to burn down a gas station which was right next to one of the buildings in which people of our colony lived, so people had to beg and say, 'Look, if you burn this gas station down, the buildings will explode. And we are not part of this violence.' Luckily, people listened, which is quite rare." He goes on to express his admiration for the street children of Bombay and their ability to look beyond their dire circumstances: "A lot of these street children, when you talk to them, they have dreams. They are very poor. They live in grinding conditions, but they have very large dreams: some of them want to become doctors and find cures for diseases; they want to become movie stars, singers, dancers; some want to join the police force and bring about real change. They are all about change, because they know that if they don’t hope, if they don’t create some kind of dream, survival for them is going to be very difficult."

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Details

Bookseller: Ainsworth Books (CA)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 16129
Title: The Song of Kahunsha
Author: Irani, Anosh
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Near Fine in Near Fine dust jacket
Edition: First Edition
ISBN 10: 0385662289
ISBN 13: 9780385662284
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Place of Publication: Toronto
Date Published: 2006
Keywords: 0385662289, India, mumbai, bombay
Bookseller catalogs: Fiction / Canadian;

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Ainsworth Books

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Ainsworth Books

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About Ainsworth Books

Ainsworth Books was for many years a bricks and mortar store in Vancouver, BC. When we acquired the store, we moved to a location in Delta. After three years we moved the stock home and started operation as an online, by appointment only operation. I have worked with books my whole adult life and enjoy giving recommendations.

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Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
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Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...