Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, author Michael Ondaatje’s birthplace, is the general setting of the novel. The novel describes Sri Lanka according to fictionalized versions of events that took place in the late eighties and early nineties. As it is portrayed in the novel, Sri Lanka is a war-torn society, its civilians caught in the crossfire between the government, antigovernment insurgents in the south, and separatist guerrillas in the north. At the same time, the novel pays homage to the ancient religious, spiritual and historical origins of Sri Lanka through its decision to place the skeletons in an ancient burial site. This plot device allows the novel to explore contemporary issues in Sri Lanka alongside the grandeur of the Sri Lankan past, most notably its sixth-century. It is also implied by the Author’s Note, in which the author gives important contextual information on this crisis in Sri Lankan...