It begins romantically in post-war Ceylon when Evelyn falls in love with and marries a rich, young Sinhalese, but things change when they settle in England and face the 1950s' prejudice against mixed-race families. Slovo beautifully captures the attitudes of the time, the gradual disintegration of a marriage and the struggles of the children to feel at home in their skin and to forgive the failures, lies and ultimately the suffocating love of their parents.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 55 Winter 2010 ) |
