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Title: The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

Author: Padma Viswanathan

Narrator: Sunil Malhotra

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-13-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: Fiction, Historical

Publisher's Summary:

From internationally acclaimed New Face of Fiction author Padma Viswanathan, a stunning new work set among families of those who lost loved ones in the 1985 Air India bombing, registering the unexpected reverberations of this tragedy in the lives of its survivors. A book of post-9/11 life, The Ever After demonstrates that violent politics are all-too-often homegrown in North America but ignored at our peril.

In 2004, almost 20 years after the fatal bombing of Air India Flight 182 from Vancouver, two suspects are - finally - on trial for the crime. Ashwin Rao, an Indian psychologist trained in North America, comes back to do a "study of comparative grief", interviewing people who lost loved ones in the attack. What he neglects to mention is that he, too, had family members who died on the plane. Then, to his delight and fear, he becomes embroiled in the lives of one family that remains unable to escape the undertow of the tragedy. As Ashwin finds himself less and less capable of providing the objective advice this particular family seeks, his surprising emotional connection to them pushes him to face his own losses. The Ever After imagines the lasting emotional and political consequences of a real-life act of terror, confronting what we might learn to live with and what we can live without.

Members Reviews:

A Canadian Disaster & Its Aftermath

On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 en route to London, England from Toronto, Canada exploded off the coast of Ireland. All 329 passengers and crewmembers were killed. Of those dead, 268 were Canadians. Yet, this tragedy received little outrage in Canada - these dead may have been Canadians by birth or choice but the colour of their skin marked them as `other'. To too many Canadians, this was an Indian disaster, not a Canadian one - Brian Mulroney, then Prime Minister of Canada, phoned the Indian President to offer his condolences. It would be almost 20 years before suspects were finally brought to trial. Although, there were several suspects, only one man would ever be convicted and then only of manslaughter and perjury. Author Padma Viswanathan uses this lack of outrage by the larger Canadian population as well as the lack of closure for the victims as the backdrop for her novel, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao.

Ashwin came to Canada in 1969 to study medicine and psychology. He settled into Canadian life with a growing practice and a Canadian girlfriend. However, when his father falls ill, he returns to India and accepts a job there. It is a period of political unrest in India. When Indira Gandhi is assassinated in 1984, Sikhs are blamed, leading to violence against them. As the violence spreads to their neighbourhood, Ashwin and his father hide some of their Sikh neigbours but witness the murder of two men at the end of their street. In 1985, Ashwin's sister plans a trip to India with her two children. Ashwin last speaks to her just as they prepare to leave to catch their flight on Air India Flight 182.

As the 2004 trial of the suspects finally begins for the bombing, Ashwin returns to Canada to do a psychological study of the survivors and their grief. He decides to keep his own loss a secret as he conducts the interviews.