RaveThe HinduReturning to the land of his roots as the setting for his novel, Gunesekera takes us on an enchanting exploration of an unlikely and, in some ways, unequal friendship, against the backdrop of a society in the first throes of turmoil. Particularly as seen with the power of hindsight given what we know of Sri Lanka’s troubled history, it’s a poignant tale of the loss of innocence, both at a personal and a political level ... For the most part, the Jay-Kairo friendship makes for a joyous narrative of relationships across the fence, so to speak, but even when it tugs at the heartstrings, Gunesekera’s elegaic prose has a curiously healing quality. As Jay says at a defining moment, you bury the dead and you learn to live — with loss and the inexplicable forces that shape a life.
