Genre Fiction
![Anuk Arudpragasam - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B01BKT6WUG.jpg)
A Passage North
A story of age and youth, loss and survival that builds into a magisterial reckoning with mortality, from the prize winning author of Story of a Brief Marriage
'Mesmerizing, political, intimate, unafraid – this is a superb novel, a novel that pays such close, intelligent attention to the world we all live in'
Sunjeev Sahota, author of the Booker shortlisted The Year of the Runaways
'A profound and disquieting account of the making of a self, of the pressures of history, desire, will, and chance that determine the shape of a life […] one senses, reading his two extraordinary novels, a new mastery coming into being'
Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs To You and Cleanness
It begins with a message: a telephone call informing Krishan that his grandmother's former care-giver, Rani, has died in unexpected circumstances, at the bottom of a well in her village in the north, her neck broken by the fall. The news arrives on the heels of an email from Anjum, an activist he fell in love with four years earlier while living in Delhi, bringing with it the stirring of distant memories and desires. As Krishan makes the long journey by train from Colombo into the war-torn Northern Province for the funeral, so begins a passage into the soul of an island devastated by violence.
Written with precision and grace, A Passage North is a poignant memorial for the missing and the dead, and a luminous meditation on time, consciousness, and the lasting imprint of the connections we make with others.
‘A Passage North is written with scrupulous attention to nuance and detail. Its world is the deeply-layered, rich interior of its protagonist's mind but also contemporary Sri Lanka itself, war-scarred, traumatized. At its center is an exquisite form of noticing, a way of rendering consciousness and handling time that connects Arudpragasam to the great novelists of the past'
Colm Tóibín, New York Times bestselling author of Brooklyn and The Testament of Mary
'Mesmerizing, political, intimate, unafraid – this is a superb novel, a novel that pays such close, intelligent attention to the world we all live in'
Sunjeev Sahota, author of the Booker shortlisted The Year of the Runaways
'A profound and disquieting account of the making of a self, of the pressures of history, desire, will, and chance that determine the shape of a life […] one senses, reading his two extraordinary novels, a new mastery coming into being'
Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs To You and Cleanness
It begins with a message: a telephone call informing Krishan that his grandmother's former care-giver, Rani, has died in unexpected circumstances, at the bottom of a well in her village in the north, her neck broken by the fall. The news arrives on the heels of an email from Anjum, an activist he fell in love with four years earlier while living in Delhi, bringing with it the stirring of distant memories and desires. As Krishan makes the long journey by train from Colombo into the war-torn Northern Province for the funeral, so begins a passage into the soul of an island devastated by violence.
Written with precision and grace, A Passage North is a poignant memorial for the missing and the dead, and a luminous meditation on time, consciousness, and the lasting imprint of the connections we make with others.
‘A Passage North is written with scrupulous attention to nuance and detail. Its world is the deeply-layered, rich interior of its protagonist's mind but also contemporary Sri Lanka itself, war-scarred, traumatized. At its center is an exquisite form of noticing, a way of rendering consciousness and handling time that connects Arudpragasam to the great novelists of the past'
Colm Tóibín, New York Times bestselling author of Brooklyn and The Testament of Mary
Readers Top Reviews
KasaCRidgewayGirlMr.
Beautifully written account of life in Sri Lanka by an author that has lived there through its turbulent history and experienced first hand the horrors of its long civil war. Not only is there a relatively straightforward depiction of life in and around Colombo, but also much introspection regarding the deep subjects that occupy Krishan, most notably the desperation of those who attempt to leave the country and the difficulties faced by immigrants. Not an easy book, but a relevant one.
Mohit G
I received an ARC of this book for review. The story centers around the main character, Krishna, making a journey north for the funeral of his grandmother's caretaker. The book mostly revolves around Krishna reminiscing about his past, his relationships and his family amongst other things. There isn't much of a plot per se, so readers looking for a storyline will be disappointed. The book moves along at a languid pace with digressions into history or multiple pages devoted to other storylines like that of Buddha. The author can certainly write as demonstrated by the beautiful prose. My issue with such books is that there is no defined conclusion to the storyline. You can easily take out a few chapters or add a few more without changing the end result. These kind of books end when the author sort of decides that they are done. The prose is lovely but can get tedious if it goes on for too long.
Ann Traskkathleen g
I spent time in Sri Lanka with an AID organization near the end of the civil war, so was looking forward to this book very much--but was very disappointed. It has excruciating detail about something a small as a glance between two men on a bus---so much so that the story itself can't unfold. If you can tolerate reading minute details of a man's every thought and interaction, this book is for you. If you want a story that tells you something about post-civil war Sri Lanka, read something else. Full disclosure, I gave up after 120 pages or so.......maybe it gets better, but I couldn't bear it.
Nancy J. Jones
I just finished reading Anuk Aradpragasam’s novel, A Passage North, which was long-listed for the Booker Prize. It is a deeply moving meditation on desire, love, violence, loss and death. Set in Sri Lanka but with flashbacks to the protagonist’s time in India, the novel takes place in the aftermath of the thirty-year civil war between the Tamil separatists and the Sinhalese government. It examines sexual identity, gender, race and caste as well as religion and colonialism. Among the qualities that I loved was the fact that there is not a single line of dialogue. The novel is all exposition and interior monologue and weaves in stories and legends of the Buddha and Tamil fighters against a backdrop of personal loss. The only action in the fictional present is that the protagonist receives an email from his former lover and a phone call that his grandmother’s former caretaker has died. He goes for an evening walk then takes a train north from Colombo to attend the funeral of the caretaker. In this unusual structure, it reminds me of Jeannette Winterson’s Art and Lies. The absence of dialogue also brought Jamaica Kincaid to mind. It’s beautifully and compassionately written. I very much recommend it.
Matt
Introspective, thoughtful and superbly written.
