Devyani Saltzman was born in Toronto, Canada. She received a degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University, specializing in Sociology and Anthropology. She works as a freelance writer. Shooting Water (Publishers Weekly, Library Journal starred reviews) is her first book. She has recently completed a ten-city reading tour.
As a freelance writer she's written features for publications from Montage to Marie Claire. Her subjects include an interview with travel writer Pico Iyer, Indian Culture through Cinema, Japan, Croatia, Daniel Libeskind and architecture, Sarah Polley, Moral Policing, and the work of music video director Floria Sigismondi.
(Key Porter, Can, 2005, Penguin, India, 2006, Newmarket Press, US, 2006, Key Porter, paperback Oct 2007)
A Bloomsbury Review Editor's Favourite of 2006
Devyani Saltzman, daughter of Deepa Mehta and Canadian producer and director Paul Saltzman, travelled to Benares to reunite with her mother and to work on the film, Water. Part Jewish, part Hindu and raised in Canada, Devyani had spent her life navigating between two religions, two traditions, two cultures and two people--belonging to both and to neither at once. Since her parents’ painful divorce when she was eleven years old, she had chosen to live primarily with her father. The filming of Water would be a mother and daughter’s second chance. Transformative and inspiring, Devyani’s remarkable story chronicles her life-changing experience in India, the struggle to produce a film, and through that struggle, the emergence of a deeper love and mutual recognition between mother and daughter.
“…Saltzman proves herself a deft writer in this deeply evocative memoir.”
- Cleveland Plain Dealer
“…A poignant memoir.”
- The New York Times
“…More than a document exposing the emergence of deeper feelings between the two women, Shooting Water is a detailed chronicle of the making of one of the most controversial films in Canadian history. In fact, Saltzman marvellously dissects the cultural and political complexities of India...”
- The Globe and Mail
“Saltzman never loses any of the threads she delicately weaves together, creating a lush, evocative memoir that is emotional but never cloying.”
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Saltzman's haunting debut is a masterpiece of the memoir form...As the daughter of divorced parents she beautifully delineates the emotional fallout from her early choice to live with her father and her struggle between the desire for independence and the youthful, aching yearning for romantic love. Her acute sense of dislocation and loneliness is palpable within the lush descriptive passages that bring the lands of India and Sri Lanka to vivid, violent life. Precise, elegant prose continually rises above the typical journey-into-womanhood memoir. An essential read.”
- Library Journal (starred review)
“A gripping memoir. It’s impossible not to be drawn into the surprisingly revealing journey. ”
- Inside Entertainment
“A languid and sensuous exploration of the subcontinent through the eyes of an estranged daughter. ”
- Kirkus Reviews
