Running in the Family with Sarita Mandanna, Antanas Sileika and Suzanne Desrochers

Hosted by Carleton's Jan Schroeder

In Person Fiction

Admission

Free

Thursday

Oct

7:53am

Eastern

Add to my Calendar

Running in the Family with Sarita Mandanna, Antanas Sileika and Suzanne Desrochers

a wholly original example of social history at its best

John Barber, The Globe and Mail on Bride of New France

Join us for a trio of family stories set against the tumultuous backdrop of world history where the political is nothing if not personal.

In Tiger Hills, the debut novel from Sarita Mandanna, Devi is the first girl born to the Nachimada family in over 60 years. Strong-willed and confident, her life is forever changed by a devastating tragedy that has unforeseen and far-reaching consequences for generations to come.

Based on true historical revelations and fragments of the author's family history, Underground by Antanas Sileika, tells the story of a troubled romance between Lukas and Elena, two members of the underground Lithuanian resistance movement in mid- 1940s. An engaging literary thriller and love story, it explores the narrow range of options open to men and women in desperate situations, when history crashes into personal desires and private life.

In Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers, Laure Beausejour has grown up in a dormitory in Paris surrounded by prostitutes, the insane and other forgotten women. In 1669, she is sent across the Atlantic to New France as a fille du roi. What happens to a woman who attempts to make her own life choices in such authoritative times?

The Authors

Antanas Sileika

Antanas Sileika is the author of two novels and one collection of linked short stories, Buying On Time, which was nominated for both the City of Toronto Book Award and the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. His last novel, Woman in Bronze, was a Globe and Mail Best Book selection. He lives in Toronto, where he is the artistic director for the Humber School for Writers. Under Ground is his latest book.

Sarita Mandanna

Sarita Mandanna was born in Coorg, India, and worked as an investment banker in India and Hong Kong before moving to the United States. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a PGDM from the Indian Institute of Management, and was most recently a private equity investor in New York. She currently lives in Toronto. Tiger Hills is her first book.

Suzanne Desrochers

Suzanne Desrochers grew up in the French-Canadian village of Lafontaine on the shores of Georgian Bay, Ontario. Now based in Toronto, she is currently writing a Ph.D. thesis at King's College, London, comparing the migration of French and British women to North America in the early modern period. She has lived in Paris and Tokyo and travelled extensively throughout Asia. Her travel writing has appeared in Toronto's Now Magazine, and she has presented her history papers at academic conferences and seminars. Bride of New France is her first novel.