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nith's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Grief, and War
Minor: Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Stalking
susanj13's review
5.0
Having read and watched on screen (generously peppered with stereotypes) many fictional anecdotes related to the three-decades long conflict in Sri Lanka, I was quite keen to read a good journalistic account of the situation in a beautiful country that I've always wanted to visit. That coupled with the fact that I absolutely loved the author's first book "Following Fish", made this one very high on the TBR list. Did not regret it one bit.
.
This is exemplary writing that starts off by building up a non-chronological narrative on the history of the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict, and goes on to give some deeply moving and difficult personal anecdotes of survivors in its aftermath - civilians who lost limbs, loved ones, homes and any semblance of peace. I am not going to take sides here, and neither does the author. He offers a very unbiased perspective, addressing a number of influential factors, both cultural and social, to make the readers realise something we always knew - that war never ends on a happy note.
.
The second half of the book can be particularly difficult to read and I had to pace myself out for the sake of my sanity. The stories are harrowing and most of their lives will probably continue to be, with no hope of justice and resolution in sight in a number of cases. But the author has made a very brave effort (especially considering he is himself a Tamilian albeit Indian) to put these broken lives and stories into words with immense sensitivity. This is top notch journalism. I see myself recommending this book a lot in the future.
.
This is exemplary writing that starts off by building up a non-chronological narrative on the history of the Tamil-Sinhalese conflict, and goes on to give some deeply moving and difficult personal anecdotes of survivors in its aftermath - civilians who lost limbs, loved ones, homes and any semblance of peace. I am not going to take sides here, and neither does the author. He offers a very unbiased perspective, addressing a number of influential factors, both cultural and social, to make the readers realise something we always knew - that war never ends on a happy note.
.
The second half of the book can be particularly difficult to read and I had to pace myself out for the sake of my sanity. The stories are harrowing and most of their lives will probably continue to be, with no hope of justice and resolution in sight in a number of cases. But the author has made a very brave effort (especially considering he is himself a Tamilian albeit Indian) to put these broken lives and stories into words with immense sensitivity. This is top notch journalism. I see myself recommending this book a lot in the future.
ash97's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
shingy76's review
3.0
An interesting book but for some reason I just struggled to be able to get into it. I've learnt at lot about the situation in Sri Lanka so a good read overall
matchesmalone's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
sreeraag_mohan's review
5.0
A beautifully written piece of investigative journalism. Samanth divides his book into four parts, and each one of them shines a different light on the Sri Lankan civil war - ultimately writing the home the point that in war, nobody is the victor.
gopalms's review against another edition
5.0
This much awaited book doesn’t disappoint. The main strength of the book is that the story of the Sri Lankan civil war is narrated through the experiences of common people and places affected by the war as well as its active participants beautifully. The stories are told from the ground and it takes you through the various geographies that the history of the nation played out and over several decades. And if you are wondering, even though the writer has Tamil roots, it doesn’t colour the narration in any way.
Samanth writes like an American journalist in the Pultizer Award winning or the NYT style. What that means is that you will not have to google or turn a few pages back and reread a section to understand the story, place or person. American idiot proofed. What a reader needs to know is told or explained very clearly. There is no confusion in the reader’s mind about the date, time or place he is talking about and the chronology of events. For example, I am currently reading Rajmohan Gandhi’s Punjab – A History from Aurangazeb to Mountbatten, and almost every sentence has a date or two and names that are thrown at the reader and one must have a good knowledge of history to connect the dates and people. The style simplifies the complex history for a reader but I should add that Samanth is a wonderful storyteller as those who have read his earlier book, Following Fish will agree. I have to confess that I had tears in my eyes when I read through this book at several places.
I was often reminded of a couple of books I read in the 80s that was my introduction to Sri Lanka while reading this book. Before the full blown civil war in Sri Lanka, there was an Indian psychiatrist and rationalist named Abraham Kovoor who lived in Sri Lanka. He has written extensively about his travels in Sri Lanka, to many of the same places that Samanth travels to in this book to meet people. Kovoor used to “solve” ghost stories and psychiatric problems by talking to people. This book reminded me of some of Kovoor’s books except that in those cases it was usually problems related to family and pressures of society on an individual. In Samanth’s book, the problems balloon into something even larger and the frictions that lie under the skin erupt into a full scale war. Like Kovoor, Samanth attempts to look at the root causes of the problems. When you read this book, one can’t help but apply the same lens to see look at the active conflicts within us and in our society today. It makes one think about the importance of stopping conflicts from going out of control. We can see that people, media and politicians in almost all the current conflicts or even simple divsions in the world are more interested in making the problems worse rather than working towards solving problems.
As an Indian reader, I was surprised by the lack of any stories about the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) which was part of the Civil War in this book or about Indian collaborators and sympathisers (Malaysian or Canadian) of the Tamil Tigers.
5 stars for the book.
Samanth writes like an American journalist in the Pultizer Award winning or the NYT style. What that means is that you will not have to google or turn a few pages back and reread a section to understand the story, place or person. American idiot proofed. What a reader needs to know is told or explained very clearly. There is no confusion in the reader’s mind about the date, time or place he is talking about and the chronology of events. For example, I am currently reading Rajmohan Gandhi’s Punjab – A History from Aurangazeb to Mountbatten, and almost every sentence has a date or two and names that are thrown at the reader and one must have a good knowledge of history to connect the dates and people. The style simplifies the complex history for a reader but I should add that Samanth is a wonderful storyteller as those who have read his earlier book, Following Fish will agree. I have to confess that I had tears in my eyes when I read through this book at several places.
I was often reminded of a couple of books I read in the 80s that was my introduction to Sri Lanka while reading this book. Before the full blown civil war in Sri Lanka, there was an Indian psychiatrist and rationalist named Abraham Kovoor who lived in Sri Lanka. He has written extensively about his travels in Sri Lanka, to many of the same places that Samanth travels to in this book to meet people. Kovoor used to “solve” ghost stories and psychiatric problems by talking to people. This book reminded me of some of Kovoor’s books except that in those cases it was usually problems related to family and pressures of society on an individual. In Samanth’s book, the problems balloon into something even larger and the frictions that lie under the skin erupt into a full scale war. Like Kovoor, Samanth attempts to look at the root causes of the problems. When you read this book, one can’t help but apply the same lens to see look at the active conflicts within us and in our society today. It makes one think about the importance of stopping conflicts from going out of control. We can see that people, media and politicians in almost all the current conflicts or even simple divsions in the world are more interested in making the problems worse rather than working towards solving problems.
As an Indian reader, I was surprised by the lack of any stories about the IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Force) which was part of the Civil War in this book or about Indian collaborators and sympathisers (Malaysian or Canadian) of the Tamil Tigers.
5 stars for the book.
ashendri's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Samanth is an excellent journalist. The timeline is seamless so nothing feels out of place. I have many thoughts, many of which stem from personal anger, shame, and anguish (mostly because I’m slowly learning about atrocities + history of the war after being blindsided for many, many years).
As a journalist, Samanth lets down his professionalism (in a really good way) to show how difficult it is to avoid infusing personal views and misgivings in the text — try as he might. I really appreciated that. I also appreciated that he made it a point to note how voyeuristic his profession is, and how much they impact the lives of people interviewed.
An excellent book with much-needed history and recent interviews.
As a journalist, Samanth lets down his professionalism (in a really good way) to show how difficult it is to avoid infusing personal views and misgivings in the text — try as he might. I really appreciated that. I also appreciated that he made it a point to note how voyeuristic his profession is, and how much they impact the lives of people interviewed.
An excellent book with much-needed history and recent interviews.