When Memory Dies - Paperback

by A. Sivanandan (Author)

A three-generational novel of a Sri Lankan family's search for coherence and continuity in a country broken by colonial occupation and driven by ethnic wars. Saha looks for that coherence in a return to traditional values, Rajan in a quest for modernity that takes him to the mother country, and Vijay in a fight for socialism that ends in terror. But through the travail of their lives emerges the possibility of another future. Winner of the Sagittarius Prize. Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. "Movingly details how three generations of idealists try to find meaning and purpose as their country, Sri Lanka, becomes another killing field."-Kirkus Reviews. "The author evokes a compelling and very human story of a lost country. It is a vision as beautifully told as it is unrelenting in its devotion to truth."-Booklist.

Author Biography

A. (AMBALAVANER) SIVANANDAN was born in 1923 and came to Britain from Sri Lanka in the wake of the race riots of 1958 - and walked straight into the riots of Notting Hill. Since then he wrote and lectured extensively on Black and Third World issues and published two collections of essays, A Different Hunger and Communities of Resistance. His novel When Memory Dies (1997) was winner of the 1998 Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book category. Sivanandan was founder editor of the journal Race & Class and director of the Institute of Race Relations in London. He died in 2018.