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Carregando... By Nayomi Munaweera Island of a Thousand Mirrors: A Novel (1st First Edition) [Hardcover] (edição: 2014)
Informações da ObraIsland of a Thousand Mirrors de Nayomi Munaweera
  
 DeltaQueen50 | Mar 26, 2024 |   This book is about Sri Lanka’s Civil War between the Sinhalese and Tamils that took place 1983 – 2009. It is told from the perspective of the eldest daughter of two families, one from each side. One family migrates to the US, but they keep abreast on current events, and the vast majority of the book is centered around Sri Lanka. The other family stays and tries to evade the hostilities but ends up immersed in it. The author provides enough historic content to give the reader the necessary background. It examines the question of what leads someone to become a martyr to the cause: “What could have led her to this singularly terrible end? What secret wound bled until she chose this most public disassembly of herself? Just moments earlier she had been just another nameless woman in the teeming crowd; now, blown to bits, she was either martyr or mass murderer, according to one’s taste. Either way she had attained instant immortality. But what had led her to that moment? This is a question that haunts me.” The writing is lyrically descriptive, featuring many cultural elements – food, clothing, customs, religions, and traditions. It contains vivid images of the seascape surrounding the island nation: “Farther out beyond the reef, where the coral gives way to the true deep, at a certain time of day a tribe of flat silver fish gather in their thousands. To be there is to be surrounded by living shards of light. At a secret signal, all is chaos, a thousand mirrors shattering about him. Then the school speeds to sea and the boy is left in sedate water, a tug and pull of the body as comfortable as sitting in his father’s outspread sarong being sung to sleep.” It portrays life before the civil war, and how it changed. It is a difficult read in that it describes brutal violence, rapes, burnings, and suicide bombings. Even with all this violent content, the author manages to convey hope for the future. (  ) Castlelass | Oct 30, 2022 |  ) hissingpotatoes | Mar 14, 2022 | http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12549026 Two women grow up in Sri Lanka during the Sri Lankan civil war: Yasodhara grows up in a thriving Sinhalan community, privileged and forward-looking. Saraswathi, from a desperately poor Tamil family, works hard at her small school, hoping to replace the teacher eventually. Yasodhara ultimately leaves Sri Lanka for the United States, while Yasodhara suffers a fate that defines her life and that of others from then on. I wanted to like this more than I did. It was hard for me to connect with any of the characters until I was well into the book, over halfway through. The story of Saraswathi begins well into the book as well, almost seems an afterthought at the time, and we don't get to know her as well as we get to know Yasodhara. Although I didn't love the book I recommend it. It illuminates part of the conflict from the ground, making it clear that it is an age-old story. It further illustrates the point that it is hard to hate someone when you know their story. ( ) slojudy | Sep 8, 2020 | ) CydMelcher | Feb 5, 2016 |
It's hard to comprehend the toll Sri Lanka's civil war took on the South Asian country. The United Nations estimates that between 80,000 and 100,000 people lost their lives in the conflict — all on an island just slightly larger than West Virginia. Ethnic tensions between two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka — the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils — simmered through the '60s and '70s. The civil war officially began in 1983 and continued until 2009 In one of the many startling scenes in “Island of a Thousand Mirrors,” Nayomi Munaweera’s first novel, a Sri Lankan girl riding the train to school is suddenly surrounded by a machete-wielding mob, who demand proof she isn’t Tamil. In her panic, she recites the Buddhist sutras “preaching unattachment, impermanence, the inevitability of death,” an unholy trinity that could apply to all civil wars. ... Still, Saraswathi’s voice never rings true; her experiences are heart-rending, but they seem to smother any glimpse of what distinguishes her from other girls weaponized by the Tamil Tigers.
"Before violence tore apart the tapestry of Sri Lanka and turned its pristine beaches red, there were two families. Yasodhara tells the story of her own Sinhala family, rich in love, with everything they could ask for. 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; but the peace is shattered by the tragedies of war. Yasodhara's family escapes to Los Angeles. But Yasodhara's life has already become intertwined with a young Tamil girl's... 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 conflict that, eventually, will connect her and Yasodhara in unexpected ways. In the tradition of Michael Ondatjee's Anil's Ghost and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things, Island of a Thousand Mirrors is an emotionally resonant saga of cultural heritage, heartbreaking conflict and deep family bonds. Narrated in two unforgettably authentic voices and spanning the entirety of the decades-long civil war, it offers an unparalleled portrait of a beautiful land during its most difficult moment by a spellbinding new literary talent who promises tremendous things to come"-- Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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 Google Books — Carregando...GênerosClassificação decimal de Dewey (CDD)823.92Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 2000-Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos E.U.A. (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia: (4.02)
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island of a thousand mirrors by nayomi munaweera
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The book opens with the story of her Sinhala parents’ peaceful childhood, their arranged marriage and the birth of their two daughters. Raised in Colombo, Yasodhara and her sisters were brought up along side a Tamil family whose son, Shiva was their closest playmate. When violence erupted their family emigrated to America while Shiva’s family escaped to England. The two sisters return to Sri Lanka as adults hoping to help young victims of the war, they meet up with Shiva, now a doctor, who has also come to help his native country. But their lives were already linked with a young Tamul girl’s, Saraswathie. She lives in the war zone and although she hoped to become a teacher, she is kidnapped by Sinhala soldiers who rape and terribly abuse her. She then is given over to the Tamil Tigers and is trained to become a killer and eventually a martyr for the Tamil cause.
The author does a masterful job of describing the island with it’s vibrant colors, exotic tastes, and lively sounds making the violence and anger of the Civil War all the more jarring and shocking. Island of a Thousand Mirrors is a painful read, all the more heartbreaking when you learn that a hundred thousand lives were lost in this war. (