Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka

Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka

by Adele Barker
Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka

Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka

by Adele Barker

eBook

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Overview

A chronicle of life on the resplendent island, combining the immediacy of memoir with the vividness of travelogue and reportage
 
Adele Barker and her son, Noah, settled into the central highlands of Sri Lanka for an eighteen-month sojourn, immersing themselves in the customs, cultures, and landscapes of the island—its elephants, birds, and monkeys; its hot curries and sweet mangoes; the cacophony of its markets; the resonant evening chants from its temples. They hear stories of the island’s colorful past and its twenty-five-year civil war between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil Tigers. When, having returned home to Tucson, Barker awakes on December 26, 2004, to see televised images of the island’s southern shore disappearing into the ocean, she decides she must go back. Traveling from the southernmost coasts to the farthest outposts of the Tamil north, she witnesses the ravages of the tsunami that killed forty-eight thousand Sri Lankans in the space of twenty minutes, and reports from the ground on the triumphs and failures of relief efforts. Combining the immediacy of memoir and the vividness of travelogue with the insight of the best reportage, Not Quite Paradise chronicles life in a place few have ever visited.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780807000625
Publisher: Beacon Press
Publication date: 01/01/2010
Sold by: Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format: eBook
Pages: 312
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Adele Barker, who was awarded a Ucross Fellowship for her work on this book, is the author or editor of five books on Russian literature and cultural life. Most recently, she received a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant to teach and write in Sri Lanka.
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