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Brixton Beach
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Product Description
Review
‘Prose so lush it appeals to every sense, the pages are suffused with the scents and tastes, ring with the sounds of Sri Lanka and South London…Roma Tearne is an exquisite writer and captivating storyteller, such that the reader is endlessly torn between the desire to linger and the urge to turn the page to see where she will take us next.’ Aminatta Forna
‘[A] richly characterised, elegantly modulated and deeply moving novel.’ Michael Arditti, Daily Mail
‘An ambitious, lyrical novel, distinguished by its refusal to offer false consolation.’ TLS
‘Tearne is a vividly sensitive writer who spares her readers unnecessary sentiment and hones in on raw emotions just below the surface. The refugee in all of us can recognise the desperate desire to belong and the sometimes terrible price we pay for it.' Julie Wheelwright, Independent
'The most moving novels of war speak of the battles fought within individual human hearts; causes and geographies are their backdrop. A timely lament for the dead and displaced of the Sri Lankan civil war, Roma Tearne’s third novel, Brixton Beach, follows four generations of a family doomed to be estranged not only from their land, but also from love.' Chris Cleave, Financial Times
'Rich and satisfying, and written with a painter's instinct for the beautiful.' Kate Saunders, The Times
Product Description
In advance of her new novel ‘The Road to Urbino’ read Roma Tearne’s brilliant ‘Brixton Beach’. Opening with the horrors of the London bombings, this is the profoundly moving story of civil war and a child’s struggle to come to terms with loss.
London. On a bright July morning a series of bombs brings the capital to a halt. Simon Swann, a medic from one of the large teaching hospitals, is searching frantically amongst the chaos and the rubble. All around police sirens and ambulances are screaming but Simon does not hear. He is out of breath because he has been running, and he is distraught. But who is he looking for?
To find out we have first to go back thirty years to a small island in the Indian Ocean where a little girl named Alice Fonseka is learning to ride a bicycle on the beach. The island is Sri Lanka, and its community is on the brink of civil war. Alice’s life is about to change forever. Soon she will have to leave for England, abandoning her beloved grandfather, and accompanied by her mother Sita, a woman broken by a series of terrible events.
In London, Alice grows into womanhood. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she has a son. Slowly she fulfils her grandfather's prophecy and becomes an artist. Eventually she finds true love. But London in the twenty-first century is a mass of migration and suspicion. The war on terror has begun and everyone, even Simon Swann, middle class, rational, medic that he is, will be caught up in this war in the most unexpected and terrible way.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Roma Tearne's third novel - like her first, Mosquito, which I also recommend - centres on a young woman, an aspiring artist, who initially learns about life, love and much else against a background of inter-racial violence in Sri Lanka. But when her beloved grandparents insist that Alice Fonseka's mother take the girl to England for her safety because of her mixed parentage, will she be any more secure there?
Brixton Beach is beautifully realised. Though Alice, her mother Sita and her grandfather Bee are the three chief protagonists, the author's use of multiple narrative points of view allows us to come to know much of the other characters' thoughts and feelings.
The book is awash with colour, whether it be the deep blue of the Ceylonese sea and the dazzling sunlight of Alice's childhood beach or the muted hues of London's buildings and temperate climate. Colour is mixed up with emotional clarity too, and Sita and Alice find that the memories they cling to in order to shape and maintain their view of themselves can also become a prison.
Is assimilation really possible, or even desirable? What does it mean to be born in one country and grow up in another; and what are the implications for British-born children of parents from far-off lands?
Richly detailed and moving, Brixton Beach is ultimately hard to put down.
Brixton Beach is beautifully realised. Though Alice, her mother Sita and her grandfather Bee are the three chief protagonists, the author's use of multiple narrative points of view allows us to come to know much of the other characters' thoughts and feelings.
The book is awash with colour, whether it be the deep blue of the Ceylonese sea and the dazzling sunlight of Alice's childhood beach or the muted hues of London's buildings and temperate climate. Colour is mixed up with emotional clarity too, and Sita and Alice find that the memories they cling to in order to shape and maintain their view of themselves can also become a prison.
Is assimilation really possible, or even desirable? What does it mean to be born in one country and grow up in another; and what are the implications for British-born children of parents from far-off lands?
Richly detailed and moving, Brixton Beach is ultimately hard to put down.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The first half of this book is set in Sri Lanka and is beautiful and evocative, full of colour, laughter and joy. The second half is heart wrenchingly sad. I read the second half with a permanent lump in my throat. It is the vitality of the first half that makes the second half so tragic. But for me none of this is what makes the book so memorable and kept me thinking about it for weeks after I had read it. The greatest achievement of this book is to give a name and a face and a story to what have become just numbers in the news these days. The book starts with a terrorist attack in central London, it then goes back to tell the story of one of the faceless "numbers" caught up in the attack. It is this life story that still haunts me, long after reading this beautiful book.
20 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
`Brixton Beach' opens dramatically with the horrific events of the 2005 London bombings - a beginning that immediately pulled me into the novel. The descriptions of the after-math of the bombing are vividly drawn, quite disturbing and very thought-provoking.
The story then moves back thirty years to war-torn Ceylon - and concentrates on the story of Alice, the daughter of a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father. The major character in Alice's life is her grandfather Bee - a strong, brave man with family values and the good of his country at the heart of everything that he does.
As a child of parents from two different cultures, Alice is treated as something as an outsider and after a tragedy within the family she and her mother follow her father to England to find a better life.
The novel is a story of homeland, identity and relationships, and these are all tested when the family are in England
This is a colourful and descriptive novel which I enjoyed immensely, towards the end of the story I found it very difficult to put down. The ending is dramatically written and the story ends on the same day that it begins - the July 2005 London bombings.
I think this novel would spark some fascinating book group debate and will certainly stay with me for quite a while.
The story then moves back thirty years to war-torn Ceylon - and concentrates on the story of Alice, the daughter of a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father. The major character in Alice's life is her grandfather Bee - a strong, brave man with family values and the good of his country at the heart of everything that he does.
As a child of parents from two different cultures, Alice is treated as something as an outsider and after a tragedy within the family she and her mother follow her father to England to find a better life.
The novel is a story of homeland, identity and relationships, and these are all tested when the family are in England
This is a colourful and descriptive novel which I enjoyed immensely, towards the end of the story I found it very difficult to put down. The ending is dramatically written and the story ends on the same day that it begins - the July 2005 London bombings.
I think this novel would spark some fascinating book group debate and will certainly stay with me for quite a while.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Unrelenting misery
Clearly from other reviews, this book is a bit of a Marmite thing. Many readers love it, but I'm afraid it left a bad taste in my mouth. Read more
Published 19 days ago by emsha
Families in conflict
Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne presents a vast project. Its story crosses the globe, beginning in Sri Lanka and ending in Britain. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Philip Spires
Deeply moving
This is one of those books that stay with you long after you have turned the last page. Yes, it is true that it is not a feel-good book but at the same time it portrays love and... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sophia
Spellbindingly Beautiful Prose
A very moving account of the collapse of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) into political chaos, and of immigrant life in England, seen through the eyes of a Sri Lankan girl with a remarkable... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Kate Hopkins
Beautifully Disappointing
I echo the voices of other reviewers who state that the description of Sri Lanka was enthralling and beautiful. Read more
Published 13 months ago by J. Thomas
Depressing
From beginning to end I think this is the most boring and depressing book I have ever read. I really struggled to get to the end and when I did it was an even bigger let down. Read more
Published 16 months ago by steph84
Review for the Audible version
I listened to the Audible version of this book, beautifully read by Charlotte Stevens. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it less if I had read the hard copy. Read more
Published 17 months ago by DubaiReader
The transformation of suffering and anger into Art
This is principally the story of Alice, born in Sri Lanka and taken by her parents to Britain at the age of 9. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Sena
the service given by amazon
I have not read this book yet but was very pleased with the quality of the product and the service given getting it to me. Thank you.
Published 19 months ago by henson
Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne
as a Sri Lankan living in Sri Lanka, I was disappointed with the first part of this book, where the story is set in Sri Lanka.
Ms. Read more
Ms. Read more
Published 19 months ago by SugarRush
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