Pain is an important addition to the literature of emigration and multiculturalism and enhances the international reputation of its already feted author. Garebian was born in Bombay. His mother was Anglo-Indian, his father Armenian. He spent his formative years in the cultural couldron of India prior to his emigration to Canada. In this powerful work, the prose is elusive, literary, and historical. The characters are unforgettable. The reminiscences are both painful and vivid.