Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.

A Passage North

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
It begins with a message: a telephone call informing Krishan that his grandmother's former care-giver, Rani, has died in unexpected circumstances, at the bottom of a well in her village in the north, her neck broken by the fall. The news arrives on the heels of an email from Anjum, an activist he fell in love with four years earlier while living in Delhi, bringing with it the stirring of distant memories and desires. As Krishan makes the long journey by train from Colombo into the war-torn Northern Province for the funeral, so begins a passage into the soul of an island devastated by violence.
Written with precision and grace, A Passage North is a poignant memorial for the missing and the dead, and a luminous meditation on time, consciousness, and the lasting imprint of the connections we make with others.
"Mesmerizing, political, intimate, unafraid – this is a superb novel." SUNJEEV SAHOTA, author of the Booker shortlisted The Year of the Runaways
'Profound...hypnotic...Arudpragasam explores the desire for independence that enflamed the decades-long civil war...and the emotional scars that refuse to heal.' OBSERVER
'An extraordinary and often illuminating novel.' FINANCIAL TIMES
'I've rarely read something so exquisitely alive.' NAOISE DOLAN
  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

  • Formats

  • Languages

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Neil Shah creates a dreamy style for his narration of this nonlinear novel centered on Krishna, a young man heading home for a funeral. Most of his journey is spent on a train in Sri Lanka, during which he remembers his past, which was intertwined with the nation's bloody civil war. Shah treats these heavy topics with the reverence they need, conveying Krishna's unsettled emotional state. The train ride is a metaphorical trip into explorations of loss, regret, and violence that fans of literary fiction will appreciate. Shah's thoughtful, gentle presentation captures the themes of the story. M.R. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 10, 2021
      A young man ruminates about Sri Lankan history and his own life in the introspective latest from Arudpragasam (The Story of a Brief Marriage). After leaving a PhD program in India and spending two years as an NGO worker in Sri Lanka following the end of the civil war, Krishan returns home to live with his mother and frail paternal grandmother in Colombo. He then learns that his grandmother’s caretaker, Rani, has fallen into a well and died while visiting her family in the north. As Krishan wrestles with the appropriate response to the news, he also mulls over an email from Anjum, a bisexual Indian ex-girlfriend with whom he shared an intense relationship. Krishan decides to travel north for Rani’s funeral, and reflects on Rani’s life as the mother of two sons killed in the war, while he still fixates on his time with Anjum. He interrupts these reminiscences with lengthy summaries of poems and a documentary film, the latter providing historical background on the civil war in a way that sometimes feels forced. Overall, though, the elegant descriptions of Krishan’s sentiments helps smooth over the slow pace and spare plot (on cigarettes: “the present more bearable even when he wasn’t smoking because it meant the present was leading to something good”). Readers who enjoy contemplative, Sebaldian narratives will appreciate this. Agent: Anna Stein, ICM Partners.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading