"First published in Sri Lanka in 2012 by Perera Hussein Publishing House"-Title page verso At its root, it's a story of a fragmented nation struggling to find its way to a new beginning". Narrated by the eldest daughter of each family, the story explores how each woman negotiates war, migration, love, exile, and belonging. "Follows the fate of two families, one Tamil, one Sinhala as they straddle opposite sides of the long and brutal Sri Lankan civil war. But the lives of Yasodhara and Saraswathie are already intertwined When the war shatters their peace, Yasodhara's family escapes to Los Angeles. As a child in idyllic Colombo, Yasodhara's and her siblings' lives are shaped by social hierarchies, their parents' ambitions, teenage love and, subtly, the differences between Tamil and Sinhala people. 'In Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Nayomi Munaweera writes with ferocity, fire and poetry of the incomprehensible madness of civil war and its effects upon those caught within it, whether in the villages and cities of Sri Lanka, or half a world away.Saraswathie is living in the active war zone of Sri Lanka, and hopes to become a teacher, but her dreams for the future are abruptly stamped out when she is arrested by a group of Sinhala soldiers and pulled into the very heart of the conflict that she has tried so hard to avoid. A dark, beautiful transporting debut' – V. The three women at the core of the ambitious, globe-spanning story show us, heart-breakingly, that we are linked by more than nation, more than race, more, even than blood. 'Nayomi Munaweera pulls you into this book's big-hearted embrace with fierce, poetic language and striking imagery. 'Lyrical, heartfelt and awash with imagery: Island of a Thousand Mirrors expresses a deep love of the country and a lingering sadness at what Sri Lanka has done to itself' – Shehan Karunatilaka, author of Chinaman Meanwhile, Saraswathi lives in the middle of the war torn country struggling to be a teenager in a land that is anything but normal.Ĭovering three quarters of a century of Sri Lanka's past, this beautifully written novel combines harsh reality, love and tenderness with astonishing insight. The two children, Yasodhara and Lanka adapt to their new life quickly but memories of their childhood on a tropical island in the middle of the Indian Ocean are seared into their souls.
Read an excerpt! This is a beguiling tale of three women swept up in the turbulence of an island's history and whose fate is woven intricately together in war, migration, love, exile and belonging.Ī few months after the 1983 riots, a Sinhalese family leaves Sri Lanka for America.
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