Roma Tearne

Mosquito has been compared to The English Patient and Atonement because of its theme of love in a time of war. Sri Lanka is a country torn apart. The Liberation Tigers want a separate Tamil state. Everyone is supposed to speak Singhala, the national language. There is violence over this mandated language. Mosquito is exquisite in its portraits of people. Each person lives and breathes with vitality. Notable author Theo Samarajeeva has fallen under the spell of a teenage artist (twenty-eight years his junoir) and, despite the growing conflicts, is brazen enough to think his fame will keep him safe. His latest book is being made into a movie. Teenaged Nulani Mendis (modeled after the author?) lost her father to the conflict. With a brother who can do no harm, a difficult uncle and an overbearing mother at home, Nulani finds solace and happiness painting Theo's portrait over and over again. But she has also attracted the attention of Liberation Tiger convert, teenaged orphan Vikram. To watch Vikram being groomed and manipulated was hard. My favorite character was Sugi, Theo's manservant who had become an unusual friend to the famous writer. His character is critical to the love affair between Theo and Nulani.
Tearne has captures poignant elements of grief. The not wanting to be near reminders of a loved one forever gone is very familiar to me. My only eye-rolling comment is the repeated insistence that 17-year-old Nulani is "wise beyond her years" as if this makes it okay for a man 28 years her senior to be attracted to her. My confessional: at the end of the book I wanted the fairytale ending. I didn't care about the age difference and felt petty for doing so in the first place.… (más)

On the surface, this novel is about the theft of a painting by Piero della Francesca. At its heart, it’s a novel about relationships and trauma. A Sri Lankan refugee awaiting trial for stealing the painting talks to his barrister about his childhood, the trauma of civil war, his British wife and their daughter, the breakdown of his marriage, and the events leading up to the theft. An English author who crossed paths with the refugee in Italy adds more layers to the narrative.

Ras, the refugee, tells his story in second person. Perhaps the distance this creates is the reason I was drawn more to Alex’s story and his close friendship with art historian Charles Boyar and his wife, Delia, and the tragedy that befalls them.

While several women are important to the story, the reader only sees them from the perspective of the two men telling their stories to the barrister. Elizabeth, the barrister, is the most inscrutable character of all, as she listens but never speaks.

The characters resonated with me, and they have enough life that I think I’ll still remember them months from now. I cared what happened to them, and I wanted to see how their stories resolved. The technical elements, especially the second person passages, were a distraction from the flow of the novel. If the structure worked as it should, it wouldn’t be so noticeable.

This review is based on an advance reading copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers program.… (más)

"Has there ever been a country that,once colonized, avoided civil war?"

Set in Tearne’s native Sri Lanka 'Mosquito' has at its core a love story. Theo Samarajeeva is an author, who after the sudden death of his wife, returns to his home land in search of the inspiration to enable him to finish his latest book. Living in an isolated house on the beach he finds friendship with a neighbourhood girl, sixteen year old Nulani Mendis,a talented artist who brings light into his world. Recognizing her talent as an artist Theo encourages her to paint and commissions her to paint his portrait.As they spend increasing amounts of time in each other's company love gradually blossoms between the pair but as tensions between the Tamil and Singhalese communities erupt into violence and hatred how will their fledgling relationship survive?

This isn't a conventional love story: Theo is 45 whilst Nulani is only 17 when they realise that they are in love which, although not a scale of Lolita, could make it uncomfortable reading. However, it is Theo's manservant Sugi who makes the reader believe that it is simply the way it must be, that it has been written in the stars. Sri Lanka is a nation full of customs and beliefs that are at odds with western culture and these cultural differences and these are a recurring theme throughout the book.

Tearne doesn't shy away from the brutalities of civil war. In parallel to the developing relationship between Theo and Nulani, are two sub-plots. Vikram, a Tamil and a fellow student at Nulani's school, left an orphan after his family were brutalised by the Army, is being fed a diet of hate and vengeance to turn him into a terrorist. Theo’s friends, Rohan (an artist) and Guilia, escape to Italy just as they too are come under increasing suspicion only to find their marriage crumbling in the upheaval.

Tearne uses the love story as a vehicle to show the suffering, pain and brutality that impact on communities, families and individuals during a civil war. No one has it easy in this book. All her characters experience fear and loss yet it is a book essentially about hope and survival.

In many respects I found that this wasn't an easy book to read. I found that I couldn't simply pick it up and put it down as I pleased but had to really immerse myself in it, to allow it get under my skin and to wash over me like a wave but it was worth the effort. I know that I should be disapproving of the relationship of Theo and Nulani,that I should be taking sides in the civil war but as all sides perpetrate acts of barbarism none of this seems to matter. Tearne doesn't make any judgements either.

Just like her characters Nulani and Rohan, Tearne was an artist before turning her hand to authorship and it shows in her writing. Tearne paints with her words, creating lush, rich scenes whether they be on the shoreline or in the jungle, the fear and isolation of imprisonment, the despair of separation or the tragedy of the young Tamil child-soldiers groomed for suicide missions. You can almost smell the spices, feel the heat of the sun or the mosquitoes on your skin.

"there are places that don't belong to geography but to time."

I must admit that I have a real soft spot for post-colonial stories and this is certainly up there with the best ones that I've read, all the remarkable given that it was the author's first novel. Some may complain that the ending was a little fairy-tale like but after the reader has expended so much emotional energy anything else would have been just plain cruel IMHO.If you enjoy beautiful writing then I would heartily recommend it but expect to go on a roller-coaster of emotions.… (más)