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Guests | September 16, 2013

Poe Ballantine: IMG In Such a Crowded, Competitive, Opportunistic World, Why Would I Be the Only One to Write This Book?

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It's the story of the century, the most baffling, bizarre, and beastly crime in anyone's memory. A beautiful, elegant, gentle, brilliant man, a... Continue »
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On Sal Mal Lane

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On Sal Mal Lane Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In the tradition of In the Time of the Butterflies and The Kite Runner, a tender, evocative novel about the years leading up to the Sri Lankan civil war.

On the day the Herath family moves in, Sal Mal Lane is still a quiet street, disturbed only by the cries of the children whose triumphs and tragedies sustain the families that live there. As the neighbors adapt to the newcomers in different ways, the children fill their days with cricket matches, romantic crushes, and small rivalries. But the tremors of civil war are mounting, and the conflict threatens to engulf them all.

In a heartrending novel poised between the past and the future, the innocence of the children — a beloved sister and her overprotective siblings, a rejected son and his twin sisters, two very different brothers — contrasts sharply with the petty prejudices of the adults charged with their care. In Ru Freeman's masterful hands, On Sal Mal Lane, a story of what was lost to a country and her people, becomes a resounding cry for reconciliation.

Review:

"Piercingly intelligent and shatter-your-heart profound, Ru Freeman's On Sal Mal Lane is as luminous as it is wrenching, as fierce as it is generous. This is a riveting, important, beauty of a book." Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things

Review:

"An elegaic and powerful portrait of a troubled time. Ru Freeman beautifully interweaves humanity and history, creating a wise, thought-provoking and deeply felt novel." Madeline Miller, winner of the Orange Prize for The Song of Achilles

Review:

"Lovingly written, historically rich and compassionate to all sides of the turmoil." Kirkus Reviews

Review:

"Freeman is a tender writer, deftly weaving culture, history and, yes, redemption into a story with a range of rich, earned feeling. It's highly likely that readers will close the book with a different outlook on life, love, and loss." ForeWord Reviews

Review:

"On Sal Mal Lane is a finely-wrought sculpture of the capillary systems by which nihilism and violence travel from the political realm to the intimate, and back again." Rana Dasgupta, author of Solo

Review:

"Ru Freeman has written the masterwork of Sri Lanka's bellum civile, a novel that patiently and lucidly witnesses the daily lives of children on a single lane as the violence builds. There are no acronyms, no convoluted battles, no dreary expository detours. This is a civil war about a garden wall, a cricket game, a bicycle ride, music lessons, the shopkeeper that won't sell to you anymore and a teenager choosing between the house of one friend or another's to burn. It distills one of the last century's most complicated wars into what it really was on the ground — the everyday reality of that timeless threat, the neighbor turned killer." Lorraine Adams, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of The Room and The Chair

Review:

“Loss of innocence is probably a universal mark of coming-of-age, but much of the innocence lost in Ru Freeman's captivating On Sal Mal Lane, shouldn't be visited upon young people, or any people for that matter. This beautiful novel gives us children of a Sri Lankan lane at a certain historical moment....Utter heartbreak is here — for the rapacious violence and madness of the world does come — and smile-as-you-read passages of larger spirits and powers being realized to the better. Ru Freeman's excellent A Disobedient Girl is now followed by a major leap up in accomplishment, empathy, artistry.” Rick Simonson, Elliott Bay Book Company
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About the Author

Ru Freeman is the author of A Disobedient Girl. She is an activist and journalist whose work appears internationally. She calls both Sri Lanka and America home.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781555976422
Author:
Freeman, Ru
Publisher:
Graywolf Press
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2013
Publication Date:
20130531
Binding:
HARDCOVER
Language:
English
Pages:
336
Dimensions:
9 x 6 in 1 lb
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Related Subjects

Featured Titles » General
Featured Titles » Literature
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Literature » New Arrivals

On Sal Mal Lane Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$17.95 In Stock
Product details 336 pages Graywolf Press - English 9781555976422 Reviews:
"Review" by , "Piercingly intelligent and shatter-your-heart profound, Ru Freeman's On Sal Mal Lane is as luminous as it is wrenching, as fierce as it is generous. This is a riveting, important, beauty of a book."
"Review" by , "An elegaic and powerful portrait of a troubled time. Ru Freeman beautifully interweaves humanity and history, creating a wise, thought-provoking and deeply felt novel."
"Review" by , "Lovingly written, historically rich and compassionate to all sides of the turmoil."
"Review" by , "Freeman is a tender writer, deftly weaving culture, history and, yes, redemption into a story with a range of rich, earned feeling. It's highly likely that readers will close the book with a different outlook on life, love, and loss."
"Review" by , "On Sal Mal Lane is a finely-wrought sculpture of the capillary systems by which nihilism and violence travel from the political realm to the intimate, and back again."
"Review" by , "Ru Freeman has written the masterwork of Sri Lanka's bellum civile, a novel that patiently and lucidly witnesses the daily lives of children on a single lane as the violence builds. There are no acronyms, no convoluted battles, no dreary expository detours. This is a civil war about a garden wall, a cricket game, a bicycle ride, music lessons, the shopkeeper that won't sell to you anymore and a teenager choosing between the house of one friend or another's to burn. It distills one of the last century's most complicated wars into what it really was on the ground — the everyday reality of that timeless threat, the neighbor turned killer."
"Review" by , “Loss of innocence is probably a universal mark of coming-of-age, but much of the innocence lost in Ru Freeman's captivating On Sal Mal Lane, shouldn't be visited upon young people, or any people for that matter. This beautiful novel gives us children of a Sri Lankan lane at a certain historical moment....Utter heartbreak is here — for the rapacious violence and madness of the world does come — and smile-as-you-read passages of larger spirits and powers being realized to the better. Ru Freeman's excellent A Disobedient Girl is now followed by a major leap up in accomplishment, empathy, artistry.”
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