Not quite paradise : an American sojourn in Sri Lanka / Adele Barker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Barker, Adele Marie, 1946-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethnic conflict--Sri Lanka.

Ethnic conflict.

War and society--Sri Lanka.

War and society.

Tsunamis--Sri Lanka.

Tsunamis.

Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004.

Teachers--Sri Lanka--Biography.

Teachers.

Sri Lanka--Description and travel.

Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka--Ethnic relations.

Sri Lanka--History--Civil War, 1983-2009.

Barker, Adele Marie, 1946---Travel--Sri Lanka.

Barker, Adele Marie.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (312 p.)

Place of Publication:

Boston : Beacon Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Intro

Not Quite Paradise

Part I

Chapter 1: Going and Coming I

Chapter 2: Student Life

Chapter 3: Housekeeping

Chapter 4: Insurrections in the Hills

Chapter 5: Hot Curry

Chapter 6: Rain

Chapter 7: The War Next Door

Chapter 8: Colombo

Chapter 9: Colonialist Torpor

Chapter 10: Life in a Different Key

Chapter 11: Gihin Ennam

Part II

Chapter 12: When the Sea Came to the Land

Chapter 13: Home

Chapter 14: Up and Down the Mountain

Chapter 15: The Story of a Wave

Chapter 16: Early Warning System

Chapter 17: Arugam Bay

Chapter 18: Batti

Chapter 19: The Road to Jaffna

Chapter 20: In Jaffna

Chapter 21: Reading the Classics

Chapter 22: Leaving Jaffna

Chapter 23: Going and Coming II

Epilogue

Acknowledgments.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-8070-0062-0

OCLC:

647833133