Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2008
304 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Shortlisted for the Costa (Whitbread) 2007 First Novel Award. Published in the USA as a paperback original.
Set adrift by the recent death of his wife, Theo Samarajeeva abandons his comfortable writer’s life in London and returns to Sri Lanka, his war-torn homeland. There he meets Nulani, a talented and enigmatic young artist. An unorthodox and tenuous love blossoms between this unlikely pair. Nulani finally feels love, and Theo sees hope in his future. But when the insurgency explodes, their precarious world is torn apart. Theo is held captive and stripped of everything he once held dear. Nulani is forced into exile. As the years pass, and the poison of war spreads across this paradise, will their love be lost forever? By turns heartbreaking and uplifting, Mosquito is a first novel of remarkable beauty and compelling power.
"Tearne captures the desperation, fear and hope of love during wartime, showing multiple sides of the human capacity for survival." - Publishers Weekly.
"Starred Review. With vividly rendered tropical seascapes and jungles, and populated by philosophical servants and petulant power-mongers, this novel offers a moving May-December love story set against a conflict in which the warring parties ultimately become Violence and Art. Wholly satisfying." - Kirkus Reviews.
"[A] lovely, vividly described novel . . . [set] against a background of lush scenery and looming civil war." - The Times.
"Flashes of true beauty, along with an impressively sustained forward drive, are enough to make Mosquito an engaging and thought-provoking novel." - Times Literary Supplement.
"Roma Tearne’s novel of love and war is a heartrending story . . . the book is also about hope and survival." - Christopher Ondaatje, The Spectator.
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