When Memory Dies

This rich novel, peopled with unforgettable heroines and heroes, will haunt the reader's mind - Observer

Haunting, with an immense tenderness. The extraordinary poetic tact of this book makes it unforgettable - Guardian

There is no rallying cry here, no dwelling on the tragedies of the individual, only an exhortation to memory and constant effort. Sivanandan's sensibilities and instincts are endlessly humane, generous and perceptive - Literary Review

Profoundly moving . . . Sivanandan triumphs in his evocation of a beautiful country he perceives as doomed. His love for the country he has lost is the driving passion of his work' - Evening Standard

This is not just a book about Sri Lanka. The struggles it touches upon, both moral and political, face us all: the battle between our hunger for love or learning or success and our need, even passion, for integrity. This is a book of, and about, many lifetimes' - Independent

A brilliant and moving first novel. With a grandeur reminiscent of the great Indonesian novelist, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Sivanandan takes the reader through three generations of a Sri Lankan family. As we move from the days of the hartal in 1920 through independence in 1948 to the neo-liberal pangs of the 1980s, Sri Lankan communalism gathers force like a conquering flood - Times Literary Supplement

An extraordinary storyteller who has total control over his material

Sivanandan's theme - the baneful in uence of colonialism - is highly political, but he writes with such humanity that what could be dry fact and ideology is transformed into a gripping and inspiring action - Sunday Telegraph