“Among Anita Rau Badami’s many gifts as a writer is her fluency of expression, a ‘natural’ style which is flowing and easy-going without losing tautness of precision. As one juror put it ‘she has a true writer’s ear.’ The jury was impressed by her ability, while using the traditional novel form, to do unpredictable things with it and also with her empathy for her characters while maintaining a clear-eyed view of them. Textured, finely-detailed, and rich with figurative language, her novels nonetheless have a wider scope than family drama, raising issues of cultural differences, of economic disparities and of social justice. They reveal, too, a deep understanding of how families and societies work.”
— 2000 Marian Engel Award Jury (Sharon Butala, Janice Kulyk Keefer and Michael Redhill)