The story of a brief marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam


 This is the story of Dinesh living in a refugee camp in a country torn by civil war. I did not have much idea about the Sri Lankan Civil War to be honest and this book focuses more on the life of refugees than the actual detailing of the war. After reading quite a number of war fiction, most of which focus on the horrors of war and its devastating after effects, this book proved to be quite unique because it chose to deal with the emotions and nuances rather than facts. 


The book is quite slow paced and doesn't have a storyline as such. Mostly it follows Dinesh as he goes about living each moment like its going to be his last. You watch his story unfolding before you but that's it-- you are the spectator. You watch him as he loses his family. You watch him as he finds a ray of hope after he marries Ganga under unusual circumstances so that Ganga's father can live in peace having fulfilled his duties. Their conversations are the most mundane yet the most powerful. Its the only time you get a glimpse of how Ganga has come to terms with the war. For her being alive equals survival-- the memories of her bygone life are pushed to such distant corners of her mind that she had to struggle to remember who she was.


This book left me with a number of unanswered questions. But I guess that's the picture of the war the author is trying to showcase. Every refugee in the camp had one question-- "Why me?" Not every question has an answer. 

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