Book review: July by Karen Roberts

July - Karen Roberts

Synopsis:
This novel, which is set in Sri Lanka, follows the lives of two young people, Priyanthi and Niranjan, as they grow up in the relatively peaceful suburb of Araliya Gardens, near Colombo. Living next door to each other, their families are friendly and extremely close to one another, despite the fact that Niranjan’s family are Christian Tamils, and considered a minority in the country, which is largely populated by the Sinhalese. When Priyanthi is thirteen, the two families go on a rare holiday to the sea. While Hemantha, Priyanthi’s protective older brother and Niranjan’s best friend, smokes cigarettes and tries to attract female tourists, Priyanthi and Niranjan form a special bond with a local man, Sena, who works among the coconut trees.

Through this bond with Sena, the two also create a bond with each other, which eventually grows into love. But despite the closeness between their families, they know that their relationship will not be tolerated due to a society that thrives on ethnic divisions.
One hot day in July, racism and prejudice in Sri Lanka reach boiling point, and the streets of Colombo erupt into violence. As frenzied mobs murder Tamils and burn and loot the city, Priyanthi and Niranjan’s secret love also comes under attack, and the hatred that storms the streets finds its way into their lives.

What I gained from reading this book:
This book serves to highlight the inanity of racism and prejudice. Throughout the novel, Roberts allows the reader to see people who are strongly opposed to having Tamils in Sri Lanka, those who are indifferent to the matter, and those who empathise with the Tamils but are too afraid to say anything in case of retribution.

Through the characters of Priyanthi and Niranjan, Roberts personalises the struggles that both the Sinhalese and Tamil people face in such a turbulent and ethnically divided society. She allows the reader to see the characters as human beings with their own hopes and dreams, rather than categorising them into religious or political groups, effectively making a connection for the reader with the character, and making the characters’ circumstances all the more heartbreaking. The fact that this civil unrest still continues in Sri Lanka, long after the book is set, makes the themes in this book even more confronting to anybody who reads it.

Positives:
This novel, while disturbing in its reality, also provides interesting views on the situation in Sri Lanka, and is beautifully written. I didn’t really know much about Sri Lanka before I read this book and it allowed me to learn about the culture and some of the history of the country while also telling a very moving human story.

Negatives:
Some of the descriptions of violence towards the end of the book can be disturbing and unsettling, so this book is probably not a good choice for those who have weak stomachs or who are unable to handle violence in any form.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Genre: Historical Romance

Recommended for: People who want to see a human perspective on the civil unrest in Sri Lanka. This novel could also be considered an alternative Romeo and Juliet story.

Book review: Panic by Jeff Abbott

Panic - Jeff Abbott

Synopsis:
Evan Casher is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, who thinks his life is moderately normal- especially in comparison to his film subjects. He has a great new girlfriend, and his mother and father, a travel photographer and computer consultant respectively, have a strong and steady marriage.

But everything changes when Evan receives an urgent phone call from his mother, telling him to return immediately to the family home in Austin. She offers no explanations, and Evan, understandably expecting the worst, travels across Texas to see her.

However, when he arrives at the house, he discovers his mother’s brutally murdered body lying on the kitchen floor, a hitman waiting for him, and his life in mortal danger.

With his father missing and his girlfriend gone AWOL, Evan learns that the important people in his life are not who he thought they were. He has to sift through the entangled web of lies and deceit that create the foundation of his life, in an effort to discover the truth about his past, before he too suffers the same fate as his mother.

What I gained from reading this book:
This book is a good reminder that you shouldn’t take anything for granted. Evan’s whole life as he knows it is ripped apart, and with no warning, after his mother’s untimely death. Evan has to struggle to put the pieces back together and create some semblance of the life he once knew.

Positives:
This fast-paced novel, which takes place over 29 days, is big on gun-toting characters but its Abbott’s well thought out plot that makes this book such an intense and interesting page-turner. With a storyline that could easily be adjusted to suit the big screen, Abbott manages to create an exciting, and somewhat believable story filled with intrigue, assassins, spies and mystery.

Negatives:
This book is probably not a good choice for people who are looking for a light and entertaining read. Panic is very much a murder and espionage-type novel, filled with car-chases, shoot-outs and the obligatory bad guys. You won’t find any sweet storylines here.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Genre: Crime/ Thriller

Recommended for: People who enjoy reading murder mysteries with a twist

Australians can buy the book by clicking the picture below: