Why a Booktrail?
1990s: A story of love, loss and civil war, the story of Mosquito set in Sri Lanka, London and Venice.
Mosquito
What you need to know before your trail
Author Theo Samarajeeva returns to his native Sri Lanka after his wife’s death. He hopes that the lush landscape of his own country will revive him but instead he finds himself involved with a young girl as the country is caught up in the growing turmoil.
The violence escalates and it becomes clear that no one is safe.
Theo is betrayed, imprisoned and tortured, and gradually stripped of everything he ever loved. Nulani fears him dead and so flees. The country descends into war and hatred. violence and suspicion is all around and its unclear if the lovers will ever find what they have lost.
Travel Guide
The author is an artist and as you read her words you might feel as if you’re tracing your finger along the raised up brush strokes.
Sri Lanka
Each brush stroke is to evoke the sound of the sea, smell the lush green landscape, feel the drops of rain and then the monsoons and then see the bigger picture of a country as it descends into war and violence.
In contrast to this image of paradise – the darker shades of this painting shows the horrors of civil war. Love weaves through the darkness amidst the senseless violence and human exploitation which is essentially what war is.
The smallest detail provides heartbreaking realisation of what war meant for the everyday –
The stench of garbage was everywhere. Since the war had advanced to this corner of the island, not even the refuse was collected.
The war sickens everyone and destroys everything even love affairs. But the search to find this love once again is what keeps people going despite being locked up, beaten and lost in every sense of the word.
London and Italy
Nulani flees Sri Lanka once she believes all hope to be lost and her lover dead. A lonely life of exile awaits and this is a heartbreaking tale of one woman’s loss.
Sri Lanka meanwhile is being marred by violence and hatred. Theo feels the full force of the anger inherent here
Sri Lanka is the main setting of significance here and so this is the focus of the booktrail. London and Venice are referenced (and are important plot points) but the main setting of the story is Sri Lanka and Colombo
Streetview Maps
A) Sri Lanka - Colombo Railway station
C) Tissamaharama lake
Where Next?
