A modern odyssey. A gripping adventure and a moving love story. HEAVEN'S EDGE is the thrilling new novel from Booker shortlisted Romesh Gunesekara. Romesh Gunesekera's admirers include Michael Ondaatje, Barbara Trapido and Philip Hensher. 'Powerful and compelling ... Gunesekera has created a palpable, terrifying world that, for all the precariousness of its beauty, harbours love and hope' GUARDIAN
Romesh Gunesekera grew up in Sri Lanka and now lives in London. His first novel REEF was shortlisted for both the Booker Prize and the GUARDIAN Fiction Prize. He is also the author of MONKFISH MOON, a collection of short stories and most recently, THE SANDGLASS.
An exquisitely written magical odyssey about Marc who, in search of a dream, leaves London for the island where his grandfather was born and his father's plane was shot down in flames. There he falls in love with the subversive eco-warrior Uva but when she disappears, Marc embarks on a final terrifying journey.
An exquisitely written magical odyssey about Marc who, in search of a dream, leaves London for the island where his grandfather was born and his father's plane was shot down in flames. There he falls in love with the subversive eco-warrior Uva but when she disappears, Marc embarks on a final terrifying journey.
In an almost epic quest to discover and understand both his homeland and himself, Marc returns from England to the unnamed tropical island from whence his family came. He feels displaced and dissatisfied until he meets Uva, an environmental activist who offers him color and enlightenment-but at a terrible price. For through his relationship with her, he is lured into the subversive underworld of those who dare to challenge the authority of the island's warlords. Much of this book describes the terrible dichotomy of a place, based on the author's native Sri Lanka, that in its natural beauty is truly at the edge of heaven yet in its political and social strife teeters on the edge of hell. Gunesekera, whose first novel, Reef, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1994, writes in a lyrical and evocative style, but the violence that ensnares his characters seems to despoil the beauty of the prose. While the intent may be to shock the reader from complacency, it creates a pacing challenge: this is an adventure story containing kernels of truth that, if developed differently and with the writer's obvious talent with words, could have resulted in a deeper novel. As such, the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Recommended only where demand warrants purchase.-Caroline Hallsworth, City of Greater Sudbury, Ont. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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