About: This Divided Island

This Divided Island: Life, Death, and the Sri Lankan War is a book by Indian author and journalist, Samanth Subramanian, written as a non fiction account of the Sri Lankan Civil War. The book received positive coverage for its depiction of the sectarian conflict between the Sri Lankan state and the Sri Lankan Tamils. The book was nominated for the Samuel Johnson Prize and the Royal Society of Literature's Ondaatje Prize. Writing in The Guardian, William Dalrymple, called it a remarkable and moving portrayal of the agonies of the conflict that "will stand as a fine literary monument against the government’s attempt at imposed forgetfulness".