A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam review – profound meditation on suffering
A young Tamil ponders the death of his grandmother’s carer in a hypnotic novel about ageing, longing and the aftermath of war
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I
n Anuk Arudpragasam’s remarkable debut, The Story of a Brief Marriage, set in the north-east of Sri Lanka during the final months of the civil war, his young protagonist is, in the midst of conflict, trying to survive against all odds. His latest novel, A Passage North, is another profound meditation on suffering but, this time, Arudpragasam’s Tamil narrator is at a distance, struggling with survivor’s guilt and war’s aftermath.