This beautifully written book recounts the personal awakening of Amrith, a 14 year old boy living a life of upper-class comfort in pre-Civil War Sri Lanka. The love Selvadurai has for his native country is evident in the descriptions of the architecture, landscape and the storms that pepper the book, as the time period covered is a school vacation during monsoon season with many forays into Amrith's and other characters past lives. Even though some of the events that take place are quite savage, such as Amrith's near drowning of his adopted sister, Mala, and the storm that nearly swept Amrith out to sea, it is throughout a gentle book, presenting the lives...