Munaweera actually describes the events from the Sinhala viewpoint, even though she does try to present both sides of the story through a fleeting romance between Visakha and Shiva which falls apart because they lack the nerve to tell their families. A remarkable debut by Nayomi Munaweera, this novel is beautifully written, juxtaposing the stunning landscape of this island country with its ravaging horrors of a civil war. However, one requires to have a little background information about the Civil War and for those unfamiliar with the details of the conflict, the book may be confusing. Island of a Thousand Mirrors is an intense and vivid portrait of a piece of Sri Lankan history that I was relatively unfamiliar with before reading this. What makes the book different to Indian readers is the background of the Sinhala Tamil conflict. The migration to America, the coming and going of people from the home country every year dreaming of green cards, with nightmares in their eyes. Much of the novel is on similar lines as Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri and the rest of the Indian diaspora. Even her transformation into a person devoid of humanity seems to be expected and a little disappointing. Also possibly because the reader by now is used to the beautiful poetic prose of Yasodhara who has already described her own childhood and growing up, Saraswathi seems to be treading familiar terrain. Retrieved 3/52016.Saraswathi’s story opens promisingly but gradually fades out from lack of conviction. Underneath, however, she struggles to reconcile her life in the U.S. What Lies Between Us is the story of a young Sri Lankan teenager who outwardly has taken up the mantel of American adolescence. The war officially began in 1983 and continued until 2009. It tells the story of the conflict between two main ethnic groups in Sri Lanka from the perspective of two girls who witness the horror of the civil war. Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Munaweera's debut novel, was published in South Asia in 2012 and in the U.S. She holds Bachelor's degree in Literature from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master's degree in South Asian Literature from the University of California, Riverside. They went first to Nigeria then eventually settled in Los Angeles, California, where Munaweera spent her teenage years. Nayomi Munaweera was born in Sri Lanka, but her family left to escape the ravages of the civil war. In 2016 she released her second novel What Lies Between Us. Her 2012 debut Island of a Thousand Mirrors won Commonwealth Book Prize for the Asian Region in 2013 and was shortlisted for a number of other awards. Nayomi Munaweera is a Sri Lankan American writer and author of two novels.
Currently-lives in the San Francisco Bay area Narrated by the eldest daughter of each family, the story explores how each woman negotiates war, migration, love, exile, and belonging.
Education-B.A., University of California (UCAL), Irving M.A., UCAL, Riverside.
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