This highly acclaimed book is Nayomi’s debut novel . The story is good, but I did not fall in love with the book.
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The book is set in the Sri Lankan civil war Era , with the Tamils and Sinhalese fighting for their rights and place in the country. The book is in 2 parts -> the First part focusses on the life of a Sri Lankan non- Tamil girl (Yasodhara) & the Second part talks about the struggles of a Tamil girl (Saraswathi) during the same time period.
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What I liked about the book is the writing style. The story flowed naturally and the visualization is beautiful. Nayomi has taken care of all the nitty gritty details . Though it seemed like there were too many metaphors at some places, it aided in capturing the essence of Sri Lanka picturesquely . Also the book does not sugar coat anything & boldly dives into the gruesome details of the implications of war on common people .
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What I didn’t like about the narration is how the 2 girls’ stories were not given equal depths. Yasodhara’s story has a lot more details and content to it than Saraswathi’s. Sarawathi’s personality transformation or her emotional struggles are not laid out, while we can see a lot of emotional elements to Yasodhara’s story. I think this could be because Yasodhara is the character Nayomi relates the most to.
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This is a good read to get a feel for the Sri Lankan Tamil Elam fights