Book review: The Story Of A Brief Marriage

THE final days of the Sri Lankan civil war were terrible for those caught up in it. 

Anuk Arudpragasam

Granta Books, €14.60;

ebook, €9.60

Philosophy student Anuk Arudpragasam’s first novel concerns a day in the life of Dinesh, a young man caught between government forces and the danger of being conscripted into what he refers to as “the movement” — the wretched remains of the once formidable Tamil Tigers guerrilla army.

His existence of sheer survival changes when he’s approached by a man requesting he marry his daughter for her safety.

Set in a refugee camp subjected to nightly bombardment, this is a tale with the emotional power of a Greek tragedy — a Euripidean Trojan Women with white beaches and neem trees.

And it’s told with a hallucinatory attention to detail that makes it feel like a first-hand account, although Arudpragasam (himself a Tamil) was fortunately shielded from the worst excesses of the conflict.

Now he bears witness for the silenced victims.