Kitaab Review: Many Roads Through Paradise: An anthology of Sri Lankan Literature

This anthology of literary voices from Sri Lanka offers a unique “opportunity to know a country and its various cultures in a holistic way,” says Kitaab’s fiction editor Monideepa Sahu

Many Roads Through Paradise: An anthology of Sri Lankan Literature

Edited by Shyam Selvadurai

Penguin, India

Rs 499/-

Pp 493

In a war-torn land where people are trying to heal deep wounds in the aftermath of widespread devastation, the anthologist hopes to provide “an opportunity to build bridges across the divided communities.”

This literary bouquet will excite readers everywhere by offering an intricate mosaic depicting Sri Lanka’s peoples and their cultures. Translations from Tamil and Sinhala are also included to give a faithful representation of Sri Lanka’s ethnic and literary diversity.

For Indian readers, this collection shows how similar we are beneath the superficial differences. It also serves as a warning, portraying the dire consequences, the stupendous human toll, that results when neighbouring linguistic and religious communities sharing the same homeland push their differences to the point of fratricide.