But after a big night out when he was 21, Alexander wound up at Brisbane’s Story Bridge, where he took off his shirt and shoes, removed his phone and wallet from his pocket, and jumped into the river below. Growing up in Queensland, his heavy drinking didn’t raise many eyebrows among his friends and family. In every character’s life, the weight of Sri Lanka’s political upheaval looms large, as Savanadasa reveals the deep impact of national conflict on individual identity.Įlspeth Muir’s charming, gregarious brother Alexander was always the life of the party. In all, a stunning debut novel from author Rajith Savanadasa.Parents, children and servants each deal with their own private battles from infidelity, to career pressures, to sexuality. Savanadasa tackles this with not just individual considerations in mind but also the additional challenge of how cultural norms shape and mold our identity, the restraints of this, and to a degree the comfort and discomfort that cultural identity can offer.Ī gloriously colourful and rich story told from multiple points of view, each of which added an individual yet collective layer of complexity and depth to the story. Importantly, Ruins tells the story of identity and the acquisition and challenges of maintaining the identity of one’s choosing. Set against the backdrop of Colombo in the final days of the Sri Lankan civil war, Ruins actively tells the story of one family grappling with the changing needs and wants of each family member and the generational differences and associated challenges in a cultural stronghold society. With one foot in the old way of life and one firmly in the new, this family can never be what it once was. In the restless streets, crowded waiting rooms and glittering nightclubs of Colombo, five family members find their bonds stretched to breaking point in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war.Īnd Niranjan needs big money so he can leave them all behind.Īs the five leave Colombo to travel to an ancient city, the generations collide and long-held prejudices surface.
In the pent-up heat of Colombo, piece by piece, a family comes apart.Ī country picking up the pieces, a family among the ruins…
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