Ottawa International Writers Festival presents ‘Lies That Tell Us Truth’, a podcast episode featuring Shani Mootoo (Polar Vortex), Farzana Doctor, and Mona Awad. Hosted by Manahil Bandukwala and Rhonda Douglas

Do we ever really tell the truth, even to ourselves? This episode features three novels that examine the lies and truths at the heart of our most intimate relationships:

Seductive and tension-filled, Polar Vortex by Giller Prize nominee Shani Mootoo is a story of secrets, deceptions, and revenge. It asks if we ever free from our pasts? Do we deserve to be?

Seven, by Lambda Literary Award-winner Farzana Doctor is about inheritance and resistance that tests the balance between kinship and the fight against customs that harm us. When Sharifa accompanies her husband on a marriage-saving trip to India in 2016, she finds her family on opposite sides of the debate on khatna, an age-old ritual of female genital cutting.

A spellbinding, down-the-rabbit-hole tale about loneliness and belonging, creativity and agency, and female friendship and desire, Mona Awad’s acclaimed novel Bunny explores what happens when an outsider is suddenly invited into a clique of unbearably twee rich girls.

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