Laterna Magika

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Laterna Magika is an impressive collection of short stories by Ven
Begamudré, a Canadian who was born in India. Many of the characters are
cultural orphans: caught between multiple heritages and sometimes
multiple realities, they spend their lives searching for their own
elusive identities. In one story, a young Canadian–South Asian student
is humiliated by a foreign-born teacher who believes that nonwhites are
inherently anti-Canadian. In another, Begamudré lyrically intertwines
Indian cuisine around the daily experiences of Indian expatriates living
in Canada, the United States, and Scotland.

The title of the title story comes from the Czech word for Magic
Lantern, a famous theatre in Prague where actors interact with images on
a screen behind them. In many ways, all these stories have a little of
the magic lantern element in them. Although none quite fits into the
science fiction or fantasy genres, Begamudré is not afraid to thrust
the reader into surreal territory. One of his stories describes a
futuristic world where shape-shifting aliens interact with human beings
in a stodgy condominium complex. In another, a dead man finds himself
learning how to be a Hindu god after being atomized by a nuclear blast.

Although bad things often happen to the characters, all of
Begamudré’s stories radiate compassion and good humor. Begamudré’s
first collection of short stories, A Planet of Eccentrics, won the F.G.
Bressani Literary Prize. This new collection easily lives up to that
high standard.