Fall 2023

Fall 2023

"I feel also not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near to those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order and harmony which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly."
— Albert Einstein

Nurul Islam is acknowledged among his peers as one of the world’s great physicists; he is one half of the Salam-Rosenfeld theory, a breakthrough step towards a grand unification of the fundamental forces of nature, a “Theory of Everything.” His absorption in his mystical world of theoretical physics is profound, from which he “tunnels” out every day into his mundane family life. But when this celebrated physicist travels to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to give a public lecture at Harvard, he falls in love with a graduate student, Hilary Chase. Unlike other theoretical scientists of his generation, Nurul Islam believes in God. He is a devout Muslim, but his outspoken, philosophical views about the nature of physics and God have earned him the ire of extremist preachers. He makes powerful enemies when he refuses to contribute to his nation’s nuclear weapons project. And a smear campaign begins against him. All these factors converge in one fateful moment when he returns with his young daughter to be with his ailing father. Everything that has worked together, as though preordained since his childhood, to take him to the pinnacle of scientific achievement suddenly falls apart.

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M G Vassanji is the author of ten novels, three collections of short stories, a travel memoir about India, a memoir of East Africa, and a biography of Mordecai Richler. He is twice winner of the Giller Prize (1994, 2003) for best work of fiction in Canada; the Governor General's Prize (2009) for best work of nonfiction; the Harbourfront Festival Prize; the Commonwealth First Book Prize (Africa, 1990); and the Bressani Prize. "The Assassin's Song" was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Prize, the Writers Trust Award, and India's Crossword Prize. "Nostalgia", his dystopian novel, was a finalist for CBC's Canada Reads. His work has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and Swahili. Vassanji has given lectures worldwide and written many essays, including introductions to the works of Robertson Davies, Anita Desai, and Mordecai Richler, and the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi. In June 2015, MG Vassanji was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize for the Arts. (Photo: Mark Reynolds)

M G Vassanji was born in Nairobi, Kenya and raised in Tanzania. He received a BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, before going to live in Canada. He is a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Toronto, and visits East Africa and India often.

Novels

The Gunny Sack
No New Land
The Book of Secrets
Amriika
The In-between World of Vikram Lall
The Assassin's Song
The Magic of Saida
Nostalgia
A Delhi Obsession
Everything There Is (Fall 2023)

Stories

Uhuru Street
When She Was Queen
What We Are

Nonfiction/Memoirs

Mordecai Richler
A World Within: Rediscovering India
And Home Was Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa
Nowhere, Exactly: Essays on Identity and Belonging (Spring 2024)