While the civil war was purportedly brought to an end in May 2009, the repercussions on people’s lives continue today. In 1983 there was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers), and after a 26-year military campaign, the Sri Lankan military defeated the Tamil Tigers. The Sri Lankan Civil War was an armed conflict fought on the island of Sri Lanka. Ruins provides insight into the Sri Lankan Civil War, a conflict most Australian readers will have little knowledge of. Ruins is testament to the breadth of Australian storytelling – and demonstrates how the stories our writers tell don’t need to be set on our own shores.

This is an excellent novel for people who believe that Australian literature is too insular. Ruins pushes back against the idea that Australian storytelling must be set in Australia.

And their long-suffering servant, Latha, is questioning her allegiances following the tragic death of her nephew. The family’s patriarch and matriarch, Mano and Lakshmi, are floundering in their marriage, while their two children, Anoushka and Niranjan, are struggling with cultural beliefs they find stifling. The characters who populate this novel are deeply flawed, interesting, believable characters who stayed in our imagination long after finishing the final page. As the story progresses, readers view the unfolding events through the perspectives of the five main characters – mother, father, daughter, son, servant – crafting a layered, panoramic view. It’s hard enough to craft one original voice in fiction, but for Ruins Savanadasa has crafted no less than five distinct, compelling voices. Ruins is a rare thing in fiction – a successful polyphonic novel that contains multiple voices. Set in busy, bustling Colombo during the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war, the novel explores the class, racial and generational divides of a big, messy family. So it was exciting to get our hands on Ruins. Many of us here at Readings are big fans of novels about dysfunctional families (who isn’t?) and it’s an area of literature that’s often dominated by American fiction. Ruins is a refreshing take on the ‘big, messy, dysfunctional family’ narrative. Here’s why we think you should read this book.ġ.

We’re delighted that Rajith Savanadasa’s debut novel is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction.

Ruins rajith savanadasa