St. Martin’s Press

256 pages, $24.99

Review by Michelle Newby

“Behind the retreating Englishman, on the new nation’s flag is poised a stylized lion, all curving flank and ornate muscle, a long, cruel sword gripped in its front paw. It is the ancient symbol of the Sinhala…A green stripe represents that small and much-tossed Muslim population. An orange stripe represents the larger Tamil minority…But in the decades that are coming, race riots and discrimination will render the orange stripe inadequate. It will be replaced by a new flag. On its face, a snarling tiger, all bared fang and bristling whisker…A rifle toting tiger. A sword gripping lion. This is a war that will be waged between related beasts.”

The politics of the Sri Lankan civil war are rendered not just personal but intimate as the Buddhist Sinhala (the ancestral dominant caste) and Hindu Tamil battle for the island nation in Nayomi Munaweera’s stunning debut novel, Island of a Thousand Mirrors. Reduced economic circumstances force the Sinhala Ranasinghe family to rent the upper floor of their home to the Tamil Shivalingam family. As conditions in the country deteriorate precipitously and the war invades both families, they are forced to flee the island. Continue reading →