I have read books that touched on the Sri Lanka Civil War between the majority population Sinhalese and the Tamil minority. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. I had never heard of this horrible and tragic event and the way it's framed through Sashi's eyes makes it compelling and a page turner.

She is a typical teenager studying for her exams in hopes of getting into medical school when she first witnesses signs of unrest. It reads like a memoir, the narrator’s voice so direct and real, or a journalistic retelling of a true story.Thank you Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. But as the civil war in Sri Lanka intensifies and violence ensues between the warring factions- the Sinhalese government and the Tamil militants who are fighting for an independent state free of persecution of the Tamils, life as she has known it shall be changed forever. Also, Sashi wants to go to medical school and become a doctor and as war rages she has her fair share of hands on experience. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were caught between the armies while the United Nations and the world watched without sending aid. And that's what I think is the epitome of good literature - delicious to the ear and encouraging to the curious mind.

But this book so beautifully and effectively personalizes the place, events, and people through the narrator's eyes that a reader feels the disintegration of society and relationships in a way that a history couldn't explain. The story is told by Sashi, who at 16 lives with her mum, dad, and 4 brothers in a village in Jaffna.Following this the Tamil Tigers grow in power and Jaffna (and other areas) effectively secede from government control. Not only do I need to learn more about the history of this event, it makes me wonder what other earth-shattering skirmishes I've missed in my own lifetime. She] forces the reader to discard a binary description of the world in favor of a more complex, human one.