The youngest of six daughters raised by a widowed mother, Meena is a young Indo-Canadian woman struggling to find her place in the world. She knows that the freedom experienced by others is beyond her reach. But unlike her older sisters, Meena refuses to accept a life dictated by tradition. Against her mother’s wishes, she falls for a young man named Liam who asks her to run away with him. She must then make a painful choice—one that will lead to stunning and irrevocable consequences.

Heartbreaking and beautiful, Everything Was Good-bye is an unforgettable story about family, love, loss, and the struggle of living in two different cultural worlds.

Gurjinder Basran is the award-winning author of three novels: Everything Was Goodbye (Penguin Canada), winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and a Chatelaine Magazine Book Club pick; Someone You Love Is Gone (Penguin Canada and Harper Perennial); and Help! I’m Alive! (ECW Press). A Simon Fraser University, Writer’s Studio alumna hailed by the CBC as one of “Ten Canadian women writers you need to read,” Basran balances the demands of her creative life with her “other” career in the tech sector. She is currently the Director of Learning, Development and Communications at Bell Canada. She lives in Delta, BC with her family.

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“A fascinating story, skilfully written, of a rebellious young woman’s remarkable courage.” - Jack Hodgins

“Exceptional.” - The Vancouver Sun

“Basran’s writing is by turns elegant and poetic.” - Quill & Quire

"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

“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 work of the Pulitzer-prize winning novelist, Bengali American writer Jhumpa Lahiri, who also draws 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 writer on the first step to greatness.” - Toronto Star

“Thought-provoking and compelling…. Timely and engaging.” - Winnipeg Free Press