The Cripple And His Talismans - Tapa dura

Prepare to enter a world where the norms of human behaviour and morality even the rules governing time and gravity are turned upside down. Set in the teeming city of contemporary Bombay, this comic and vibrant tale begins with a young man in search of his missing arm. Each person he meets offers him a clue: a woman who sells rainbows; a coffin maker who builds tiny caskets; a giant who lives under water all lead him to Baba Rakhu, the master of the underworld and the only one who can reveal the meaning of his predicament. With humour and ingenuity, Anosh Irani has crafted a bold story that is as much about loss as it is about the presence of faith in a world that can be as cruel as it can be forgiving.

Anosh Irani was born and brought up in Bombay and moved to Vancouver in 1998. He is the author of Dahanu Road, which was longlisted for the 2010 Man Asian Literary Prize. The Song of Kahunsha, which was a finalist for CBC Radio's Canada Reads and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, was published in thirteen countries, and was a bestseller in Canada, China and Italy. His play Bombay Black won six Dora Mavor Moore awards, including for Outstanding New Play. Irani was nominated for the Governor Generals Award for Drama for his anthology The Bombay Plays: The Matka King & Bombay Black.