One of the 20 Longlisted titles for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2011.

October 2010 Book of the Month.

A tale of romance and Sri Lankan politics from the author of Brixton Beach. It is  rather  pessimistic and tragic and yet despite that is richly satisfying. Almost everything imaginable happens to or has happened to the few characters. There's the loss of a parent, a hatred of siblings, an illicit affair, bigotry, insanity, hopeless love, political upheaval, suicide, and more, all portrayed in a light, simplistic style.  In short, it's a gripping, captivating novel about love, loss and what home really means.

Comparison: Rani Manicka, Tash Aw, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Synopsis

Forty-three year old Ria is used to being alone. As a child, her life changed forever with the death of her beloved father and since then, she has struggled to find love.That is, until she discovers the swimmer. Ben is a young illegal immigrant from Sri Lanka who has arrived in Norfolk via Moscow. Awaiting a decision from the Home Office on his asylum application, he is discovered by Ria as he takes a daily swim in the river close to her house. He is twenty years her junior and theirs is an unconventional but deeply moving romance, defying both boundaries and cultures - and the xenophobic residents of Orford. That is, until tragedy occurs.

Reviews

'A tender, unconventional love story unfolds, until tragedy intervenes!Tearne's descriptions of the wide Suffolk skies are breathtaking; she has a wonderful ability to create atmosphere'
The Times

'Broodingly atmospheric!Roma Tearne is one of those writers who manage to interweave the political and personal to tremendous effect!Tearne captures a shifting social and political landscape and questions notions of home and homeland![she] draws her characters with an artist's precision! her extraordinary book offers a rare insight into the subtle and dramatic ways we are shaped by conflict, and how our personal lives can be overtaken by political forces'
Independent

'Topical themes such as the war on terror and the treatment of asylum seekers are cleverly presented against a background of love, grief and guilt; all this is drawn together by a theme of belonging!this is beautifully atmospheric writing, deeply moving and thought-provoking'
Books Quarterly (Waterstones)

'A lyrical tale of love and loss'
Country and Town House

'[A] moving tale of forbidden love'
Bella

About the Author

Roma Tearne is a Sri Lankan-born artist and novellist living and working in Britain. She arrived with her parents in this country at the age of ten. She trained as a painter, completing her MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. For nearly twenty years her work as a painter, installation artist and filmmaker has dealt with the traces of history and memory within public and private spaces. In 1998, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, highlighted one of her paintings, Watching the Procession, for its Summer Exhibition. As a result her work became more widely known and was included in the South Asian Arts Festival at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1992. In 1993, Cadogan Contemporaries, London, began showing her paintings, then in 2000, the Arts Council of England funded a touring exhibition of her work. Entitled The House of Small Things, this exhibition consisted of paintings and photographs based on childhood memories. They were the start of what was to become a preoccupation with issues of loss and migration. Roma became Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 2002 and it was while working at the Ashmolean and as a response to public interest that she began to write. In 2003, she had a solo exhibition, Nel Corpo delle Città (In the Body of the Cities), at the MLAC Gallery in Rome. She is currently the holder of a three-year AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Fellowship at Brookes University, Oxford, and is working on the relationship between narrative and memory in museums throughout Europe. Roma’s first novel, Mosquito, will be published in 2007, and she is currently finishing her second novel, set in Sri Lanka. She is married with three children and lives in Oxford. Author photo © Alistair Tearne More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation