Sam's Story

by Elmo Jayawardena

Nominated by:

• Colombo Public Library, Colombo, Sri Lanka
  

Sam's Story is about Sri Lanka. It is narrated by Sam, an illiterate houseboy born in a village too remote for maps, brought to work in a town house where he finds momentary happiness in a life muddied by difficult days and painful moments. It is about the tears he shed and the days he wished he could forget, of the people he loved and the others he loved to hate. The story reaches across Sri Lanka and gathers into its fold many characters: Piya, Sam's childhood friend; Kaluwa, the son of a rich Mudalali; Leandro, the Tamil cook; Lucky, the barber and Sam's two brothers, Jaya and Madiya who join the army to fight the separatists.
This is the story of a country gasping for fresh air in the midst of an unending civil war and the chronic trauma it creates in its people, afflicting every life in every race, leaving none untouched.