
A Toronto-area book launch for The Family Took Shape, the first novel by Halifax author Shashi Bhat (who was born and raised in Richmond Hill, where the book is set), took place this past Saturday at the Sringeri Community Centre. The entire launch was planned and thrown by Shashi’s family, and was a resounding success. Cormorant Books publisher Marc Côté says a few words to recap the event:
“The launch itself was attended by about 300 guests, who sat in an auditorium to listen to speeches and a reading. I was asked to pull the ribbon tied around a stack of copies of The Family Took Shape, in order to release it officially. Then I spoke very briefly. Shashi read. Then her father – with her mother and her brother, the entire family on stage together, standing behind him – spoke about his daughter. His pride in her accomplishment was something to hear and behold; he began by explaining that he and his wife had tried their best to direct Shashi into becoming a doctor, but that she had become a writer instead. (Big laugh in the audience.) Then he said, ‘And now, she has published her first novel with the very prestigious Cormorant Books.’ He then thanked us all for our work on his daughter’s behalf.
Afterwards, no fewer than about ten people came up to thank John and me for attending the launch and for publishing an Indian immigrant writer. ‘Multiculturalism works when companies like yours publishes our children’ was a phrase we heard at least three times. (Every time I responded, ‘Thank you. But we published Shashi because of her talent and the novel she wrote.’)
It was a terrific afternoon.”
Shashi Bhat’s short fiction has been published in numerous journals, and her story “Indian Cooking” was a finalist for the 2010 RBC Bronwen Wallace Writers’ Trust Award. The official Halifax launch of The Family Took Shape will take place Tuesday June 4, at The Bitter End pub.