A review by ajju_315
This Divided Island: Stories from the Sri Lankan War by Samanth Subramanian

5.0

Having visited the neighbouring country of Sri Lanka once, I was naturally interested to learn more about its past. Though I enjoyed my Sri Lanka trip and found it very beautiful, this book and its horrors were a revelation. I had heard about the Civil war but this was the first detailed account that I read. Intially, when I started reading this book I quit it as I thought it was a bit slow paced. In fact, the actual story about the LTTE and the civil war starts a bit late. But once the actual story starts it is just gripping. The author consolidates various anonymous and non anonymous interviews with the local population (some Sinhalese and many Tamilians) to give a bigger picture of the realities of post war SL. A must read if you are interested in Sri Lanka's post independence history!