Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★★ (4.9/5)
Genre: Non-Fiction, History, Journalism, Politics, Human Rights, Sri Lankan Studies.

Book Review:
Rohini Mohan's ''The Seasons of Trouble'' is a searing, essential, and deeply humane work of reportage. Winner of multiple prestigious awards, this book is a powerful and devastating account of the aftermath of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war, told through the lives of three ordinary people caught in its wake.

The book is the result of five years of meticulous research and hundreds of interviews. Mohan focuses on the stories of Sarva, a young Tamil man dragged off the streets by state forces and disappeared; his mother Indra, whose tireless search for her son takes her through the Kafkaesque maze of the Sri Lankan bureaucracy; and Mugil, a former child soldier who escapes the LTTE to protect her family, only to find herself in a camp for the displaced.

Mohan's writing is remarkable for its empathy and its unflinching honesty. She paints her characters with such emotional richness that they leap off the page. We feel their fear, their hope, their despair, and their resilience. Through their eyes, we witness the ''creeping violence of the everyday'' that followed the war's end: the arrests, the disappearances, the detention camps, the land grabs, and the pervasive sense of suspicion and distrust.

''The Seasons of Trouble'' is not just a chronicle of war and its aftermath; it is a profound meditation on survival, loss, and the enduring strength of the human spirit. It is a book that does what the best journalism and the best fiction do: it allows us into the hearts and minds of people who might be very different from us, and it makes their struggle our own. As Shyam Selvadurai notes, it's a book that will stay with you long after you've finished it. An unforgettable and essential read.