PRAISE for Help! I’m Alive
“Moving beyond cliches about resilience or stages of grief, Help! I’m Alive takes a thoughtful look at both literal and figurative journeys of “getting better.” The book offers moments of loneliness, isolation, regret, and anxiety, authentically explored in ways both affirming and reassuring. Perhaps most vitally, Basran doesn’t rely on tidy resolution or even explanation to make larger points. There is no “getting over it” here—instead the narrative assures us that coping comes in varied forms, and that it certainly doesn’t need to look a certain way to be valid.”
“The undoubted success of Help! originates with writing elementals. Basran’s artful management of them — distinctive characters (witty, loving, conflicted, capable-but-stymied) on expertly-paced quests (peculiar, quirky, lovingly rendered, intriguingly resolved) in a contemporary Canadian setting (whose issues, conflicts, frailties, strengths, and knotted complications are immediately recognizable) — is clear from start to finish. It’s fiction to enjoy as storytelling, sure, but as impressive, it’s an elegant story to consider as a bracing, deep, and useful meditation on the (pre-pandemic) here and now.”
“Help! I'm Alive, Gurjinder Basran's insightful, compelling third novel, captures the guilt, confusion and longing for connection that follow the death of a suburban teen...Four people narrate the story, each of whom was close to Jay, a boy who live-streamed footage of his death...Rather than exploiting suicide for character development, Basran opts to probe fractures in the oldest, closest relationships and the beautiful fragility of new ones...Help! I'm Alive is a masterful examination of what it means to be human, to hope and to connect.”
“ Gurjinder Basran brings a laser-focused intensity to the interactions and concerns of alienated teens, the cruelties and generosities of friendship, intimacy and family, the ‘small interventions’ that make life bearable. ‘When we’re the luckiest we don’t even know it’s happening,’ she writes. By the end of Help! I’m Alive, though, that is no longer true; having come through a terrible ordeal, these flawed but compelling characters have found the grace notes to guide them onward in their journey.”
— Rachel Rose, author of The Octopus Has Three Hearts
“Basran sensitively examines four characters with their own sets of psychological struggles, all of whom gradually and to a believable degree begin to move past them and open up, offering a hint of hope to the reader.”
— Booklist
PRAISE for Someone You Love is Gone
"A beautiful, haunting story of one family, spanning generations and continents, as they face life's inevitable losses, struggle with grief, and reach for redemption."
—Shilpi Somaya Gowda, New York Times Bestselling author of the Secret Daughter and Golden Son
“In this brave and beautifully written novel, Gurjinder Basran shines a light into the darkest corners of one family’s emotional inheritance. Grief has the power to remake us, and for Simran and her mother, Amrita, it proves truly transformative, blurring the lines between self and other, home and history—even life and death.”
—Alissa York, author of Fauna and The Naturalist
"Someone You Love is Gone is a touching, interesting look at a family’s ups-and-downs and generational connections."
"Although epic in scope, Someone You Love is Gone is economically and poetically written."
"Someone You Love Is Gone proves Basran knows deeply the ways personal history is etched by time and events."
"The ability alone to weave this moral complexity into her stories makes Gurjinder Basran a novelist worth reading."
"A realistic and emotional portrayal of grief."
PRAISE for Everything Was Good-bye
a fascinating story, skillfully written, of a rebellious young woman's remarkable courage."
—Jack Hodgins, author of The Master of Happy Endings, Broken Ground, The Invention of The World
"...a brave book, and also a pleasure to read: emotionally engaging, sensuous, vibrant and beautifully observed."
Kathy Page, author of The Find, Alphabet, The Story of My Face, The Two of Us
"A tender novel about identity and the search for belonging that is both humorous and heartbreaking. In Meena, Basran has created a feisty, complicated and irrepressible heroine."
—Thrity Umrigar, author of the bestselling "The Space Between Us" and "The World We Found."
"Basran's writing is by turns elegant and poetic..."
"Thought provoking and compelling...a timely and engaging read..."
"A sad story, ending in a misery born from that clash of cultures, but the writing is vivid, full of crackling dialogue and the plot is completely absorbing...Basran's book reminds me of the Pulitzer-prize winning novelist, Bengali American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, who also draw the outsider into the world of Indian immigrants to North America, vividly expressing their difficult adaptation...She is clearly on the same path as Lahiri, a write on the first step to greatness."
"Exceptional"
—The Vancouver Sun
"(This) complex drama of knowing someone by heart is universal...Fans of Jhumpa Lahiri will want to read this first novel.
—Booklist
"Everything Was Good-bye is an achievement to be proud of and has garnered the recognition and positive attention it deserves."