‘Below me the island glistens verdant green. I imagine what it holds. Such things of horror and exhilaration as are seldom gathered together… I turn my head from the window as fear and liberation beat in equal measures through my bloodstream.’
Straddling opposite sides of the long and brutal civil war in Sri Lanka, two girls – one Sinhala, the other Tamil – navigate their histories, sibling rivalries and adolescent heartbreaks, the burdens of exile and belonging, and the harsh demands of survival.
Written in stirring prose that evokes the beauty of the island country and the bloodshed that has destroyed it, Nayomi Munaweera’s debut novel is a haunting tale of lives distorted by terrible violence.
