The Unremembered Past

Welcome back Marina Nemat as she joins Leslie Shimotakahara on stage to discuss two remarkable works of historical fiction inspired by real-life family stories. Nemat’ Mistress of the Persian Boarding House, is inspired by her grandmother's dramatic flight from revolutionary Russia to Iran. Shimotakahara presents The Breakwater, a beautifully told saga centred on a pair of brothers whose rivalries come to a head amid the tumult of the Japanese-Canadian experience during World War II.

Marina Nemat is the author of the bestselling memoir Prisoner of Tehran and its follow-up memoir After Tehran. Imprisoned in Iran as a teenager for political dissent, she later immigrated to Canada. Marina is the recipient of the Human Dignity Award from the European Parliament. She lives in eastern Ontario. 

Leslie Shimotakahara is the author of the novel After the Bloom and the memoir The Reading List. She won the Canada-Japan Literary Prize and has been shortlisted for the K.M. Hunter Artist Award. She holds a PhD in English from Brown University and lives in Toronto.