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Books

Tip-toeing through Sri Lanka

A review of Noontide Toll, by Romesh Gunesekera. One of the most delicate contemporary prose stylists tackles one of the most intractable conflicts

26 July 2014

9:00 AM

26 July 2014

9:00 AM

Noontide Toll Romesh Gunesekera

Granta, pp.256, £12.99, ISBN: 9781620970201

‘The first night I stayed in Kilinochchi, I was a little apprehensive,’ admits the usually cool-headed Vasantha, van-driver and narrator of all the stories in Noontide Toll. Kilinochchi was the operational centre of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) until the Sri Lankan army’s entry in January 2009. Now the town offers amenities like the Spice Garden Inn, with glass-walled cafeteria and reception desk overflowing with coconut flowers and bougainvillea.

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Available from the Spectator Bookshop, £10.99. Tel: 08430 600033. Paul Binding is a novelist, critic, poet and cultural historian.

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