Moyez G. Vassanji, The Book of Secrets

Mala Pandurang (BMN College, Mumbai)

Ed. by Delphine Munos, Université de Liège
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1993

Places

Kenya (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Moyez G. Vassanji’s forefathers were Khoja-Ismaili who migrated from Gujarat, in India, to East Africa. Usually described as a religious group which values the teaching of both Hindu gurus and Moslem pirs, the members of this fundamentally entrepreneurial community played a vital role in enabling the commercial expansion of the British Empire into East Africa. Vassanji was born in Kenya but spent his growing years in Tanzania. He attended M. I. T at Boston and settled in Canada thereafter in 1978. His personal identity has therefore been shaped by experiences of multiple locations. Vassanji’s creative fiction predominantly focuses upon reconstructing the multi-generational history of the Ismaili Khoja community, whose …

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2402 words

Citation: Pandurang, Mala. "The Book of Secrets". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 March 2021 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28184, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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