Bandula Chandraratna

I hadn't realized I had read this book before until I got close to the end. It was interesting to read again and see how a simple, uncomplicated man could be swept up into victimization that is passed off as religion. Sayeed wasn't stupid but he was pushed. His brother pushes him to get married. Sayeed marries a widow with a child which turns him into a bit of a outcast where he lives. Sayeed sees the best or at least ignores the worst in people and that blows up in his face with his wife.

He's a sympathetic character but only to a point.… (mere)

I love the rating system on goodreads. It's simple and straightforward; it tells you exactly what I thought of the book in a useful way, the measure of how much I liked the book.

[a:Bandula Chandraratna|737425|Bandula Chandraratna|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] most surely knows how to write. His style is plain and arid and empathetic and compelling. There are several moments in the book where non-central characters are so fully drawn you expect the story to become theirs. The opening scenes, as you slowly, slowly realise what Nimal and David are doing, where they are going, are implacably distressing.

Both the write up here on goodreads and the back jacket of the book are misleading: this is not Leila's story or her mother Latifa's story. It is Sayeed's story.
… (mere)