Preface

Imagine being in present day Sri Lanka, in the middle of a terrible civil war that is virtually unheard of in the western world with a causality number that grows by the second and two quarreling regimes that are leaving innocent civilians dead as they fight to claim what they think is rightly theirs. Welcome to the world of Anil Tissera, a forensic anthropologist that is sent into this battlefield of a country to investigate alleged human rights crimes and violations made by the Sri Lankan government. The novel Anil’s Ghost documents Anil’s time in Sri Lanka, her home country that she left fifteen years ago for the western world, as she discovers what life is like in these troubled times.

Anil is paired with an archaeologist that is hired by the Sri Lankan government, named Sarath Diyasena. He has lived in Sri Lanka his whole life and has grown accustomed to living in the war. Sarath is a character that embodies the main themes of this book- he has seen the inhumane treatment of civilians, experienced the conflict of the Sri Lankan identity, realized the importance and advantage of living in a peaceful, war-free environment and mostly, he demonstrates how being caught in a place where conflict is rampant causes one to become self destructive.

This theme of war and its relation to self destructiveness can also be seen in Gamini, a doctor who is Sarrath’s brother, Ananda, a sculptor and miner, and Palipana, Sarath’s mentor. All of these characters have been living in Sri Lanka through the war and each show us how one of the most devastating effects of war is the loss of self-control and the spiral into self destruction.