Island of a Thousand Mirrors
Scorched
limbs, bloodied streets, bodies gutted by a million shards of metal and screams
of death. These are the memories and experiences that are being forgotten and
erased from the history of Sri Lanka; the violence of a nation hidden beneath a
veil of grandeur and false security. As quoted at the beginning of the novel,
Nayomi Munaweera sets out to explore how “the struggle of man against power is
the struggle of memory against forgetting” in Island of a Thousand Mirrors.
This
is a novel that truly sends one on an emotional roller-coaster. Munaweera
unearths the horrors of the past through the narratives of Yashodara
Rajasinghe, a Sinhalese girl born and raised in Colombo and Saraswathi, a Tamil
girl living in a border village fighting against the cruelties of war. The
reader is taken through a story of great love affairs, betrayals, hope, deep trauma
and violence. The way in which these characters are represented puts into
question all our biases and preconceived notions of war, terrorism, nation,
ethnicity and human life. This is a novel that will leave you with many
questions as to who decides how history is narrated, who is a terrorist and who
is the saviour, and is one life worthier than another.
The
sufferings of Yashodara, her family and the traumatic experiences of Saraswathi
provides glimpses of a “thousand mirrors” that reflect the intricacies of life,
war and violence. These two narratives are brought together in one act of
massive destruction (spoiler alert – Lanka, Yashodara’s sister becoming a
victim of Saraswathi, who becomes a suicide bomber for the LTTE) and it is this
moment that creates a perfect balance which shatters the notion of a single
truth or perspective. Through Saraswathi’s final act of revenge against her
rapists and what they represent, Munaweera shows how no one can be branded as
the victim or the perpetrator. It is this greyness with which the story is
unfolded that really appeals to me. The deep hatred and inhumanity looming
beneath the lush greenery, sparkling seas and the beauty of the island is
brought to surface by Munaweera as a powerful reminder of how our nation still
has a long way to go in its journey towards reconciliation.
There
are memories that should not be disregarded or forgotten in the attempt to heal
the wounds of a broken society. To forget is to deny the existence of
something. The gross misuse of power in rejecting histories, experiences and
human life is what the novelist strives to acknowledge. As a diasporic writer,
Munaweera brings in an important lens through which the past can be examined. We
have all been affected by the ethnic conflicts and the political violence of
the past few decades that has caused massive trauma. Regardless of whether you
have experienced these horrors first hand or not, these are memories that will
be a part of every Sri Lankan. This is a story that will speak for many by
making you relive, negotiate and understand your own reality.
- Sasha Hewa
I haven't read this novel yet but your post is incentive for me to do so. I read it twice because it got me thinking quite a bit. I think the relevancy of the novel is evident now more than ever when we're living in an era where certain narratives are downplayed while there are attempts to promote others in the name of nation building. It's interesting that you pointed towards the validity of history, which is THE source that we turn to when we want to validate various claims. Interesting but rather eerie and unsettling because the moment you begin to think about ''who decides how history is narrated'', you are thrown out of your comfort zone and into a space where you have to confront matters you'd rather not
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the novel, but it sounds really moving. I have to agree with Nipuni- we take history for granted faaaaar more often than we ought to! We think of it as being just plain old facts; we think of it as something that will provide us with a 'full picture' of something, without really considering the politics behind any of it. It's part of the reason why I loved history in school. However, books like this one and even Anil's Ghost and Elephant's Pass prompt us to think again.
ReplyDeleteI really haven't read any novels written by Sri Lankan authors for pleasure to be honest. Except for academics. But reading your article, I'm sort of regretting that I haven't explored all these wonderful works by our authors. Especially when it relates to us in a very personal way.
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ReplyDeleteI should definitely add this novel to the list of my books to read, and as Nipuni said the questions poses by this novel are very very relevant to this day, maybe far more relevant than they were before, since ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka is taking new forms and shapes day by day and it feels like war is not over. What happened in April 2019 and the dominant narrative that emerged through that painting an entire minority group as 'perpetrators' proves how literary works like these are much needed today where mainstream media only narrates the dominant and the popular narrative. People need to look at reality as it reflects in thousand mirrors or the future will not be that different to the past or the present.
ReplyDeleteSorry I keep deleting my comments because I forget to mention my name at the end.
-Devindani-
This novel seems to be quite a significant as I see critics refer to this often in research on Sri Lankan literature about the war. Although I haven't read the book, I infer from your post that it is very relevant to our history and more so to our current situation where differences are deliberately sought out to be picked on and criticized. It is even more frightening that differences, especially those on the level of ethnicity are stereotyped and seen as definite markers of a person's entire being attesting her/his superiority over others. I personally believe that the idea of race, ethnicity or religious 'purity' are unreal and the battle of differences we are going through in one form or another are political agendas and the lasting effects of colonial rule, and perpetrated and maintained by a very close-knit group. The responsibility of deciphering and knowing our own history lies in our hands, except that we now don't really know where exactly to turn to when this very thing we call history is, once again, not an absolute truth.
ReplyDeleteNuzla