ANOSH IRANI was born and raised in Bombay, India. He moved to Vancouver in 1998, and received his Masters in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia in 2004.
First published in 2004, The Cripple and His Talismans was Irani’s first novel, earning him critical acclaim and a spot on Quill and Quire’s “writers to watch” list. The novel has also been published in the United States, Germany and China.
Irani’s second novel, The Song of Kahunsha, was published in 2006. It is a tale of children in Bombay struggling for survival amidst the violence of the 1993 racial riots. It became a Canadian and Italian bestseller, and was a 2007 CBC Radio “Canada Reads” selection. His 2010 novel, Dahanu Road, is an epic love story about three generations of the Irani clan: Zoroastrians who fled from persecution in Iran to Bombay.
Irani is also an award-winning playwright. His first full-length play, The Matka King, premiered in Vancouver in 2003. His 2006 play Bombay Black won four Dora Mavor Moore Awards including Outstanding New Play. He was a 2007 Governor General’s Award nominee for Drama for The Bombay Plays. His most recent play is My Granny the Goldfish.
Irani divides his time between Bombay and Vancouver.
Irani says of his birthplace: “In the Commedia dell’arte, there was a tradition of sending clowns on stage during a play whenever the audience was bored. They performed physical comedy sketches called lazzi which had no real connection to the actual story of the play. At times, Bombay’s like that. It’ll be a normal day, with eggs and traffic, that sort of thing, and then suddenly, out of nowhere, something absurd will happen.”