by Michael Ondaatje, Alan Cumming
ETA: Warning - you learn very few specifics about the civil war. I was up last night thinking about this and considering if I should remove a star. No, I am not removing one. Ondaatje has a special way of writing, and I like it very much. In the beginning of the book there is a statement that says t...
Hmmph, I am not sure about this book. The actual "mystery" part could have been handled in 100 pages or less. However, there was a lot of "back-storying" going on. Much of the back story didn't really add to the book and what was up with all the italic sections? The compelling part of the book, t...
The book really took me with it on a journey. I'm glad I read it slowly and without the distraction of any other books. The subject is war and very painful but painted through the detail of characters that go straight to the heart which is how it is bearable to read, yet unbearable at the same time ...
Interesting in many respects: the prose is easy yet lovely, the topic (forensic medicine with a human rights angle), and the treatment of shifting in dimensions.But somehow I didn't really like Anil's character. She didn't seem quite real, a trite stereotype of the many do-gooders. Somehow her motiv...
This is a book that will captivate you, by its ability to transport you to a time and place that you've probably never visited, or read about before. Anil herself is a complex character that evokes far more than what is revealed. The plot here is one that is both fascinating, and out of the ordinary...
Anil is an expat Sri Lankan, expert in the forensics of old bones. She returns to Sri Lanka to examine archeological remains and discovers evidence of recent atrocities. This is a portrait of a Sri Lanka riven with murderous conflict, a fascist state in which dissent yields death. Thousand are murde...