litfarm

I just found out tonight that Gurjinder Basran’s novel Everything Was Goodbye has won Mother Tongue Publishing’s Search for the Great BC Novel Contest!

Gurjinder, who was named “one to watch” in 2008 by the Vancouver Sun, also had her novel short-listed for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in the same year.

From contest judge Jack Hodgins:

“Gurjinder Basran’s ambitious novel Everything was Good-bye is the fascinating story of  a strong-willed young Indo-Canadian woman raised in the Lower Mainland, and traces her life from adolescence to middle-age — a life of  rebellion against the expectations of a tradition-bound widowed mother and the demands of her community. Meena’s story brings us intimately into her world, and allows us to identify with the difficulties of trying to live in the culture of a new world while dealing with expectations and demands originating in another.  Although she is to a certain extent representative, Meena is also a unique rebel, imaginative and passionate, torn between a weakening attachment to her family and her desire to be part of the larger Canadian culture she has been raised within. There is heartbreak here, and violence, but there is romance and bravery as well, and some triumph. Above all, there is the reward of getting to know this bravely determined young woman.”

Other judges were Karen X. Tulchinsky and Kathy Page.

I’m really, really, really happy for Gurjinder. I love it when the good guys win.