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13th century – The pen is indeed mightier than the sword
River of Ink
What you need to know before your trail
Kalingha Magha is a ruthless prince with a formidable army – he arrives on Lanka’s shores and usurps the throne, laying waste to everything in his wake.
Asanka is the court poet who lives there when all this change takes place. To his horror he is tasked with translating some poetry for this man – an epic Sanskrit poem about gods and nobles, love and revenge which the king hopes will have a civilizing affect on his subjects
But Asanka is clever and loves his country so he decides to insert subversive texts. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword. But what will happen if Magha finds out?
Travel Guide
Polonnaruwa map from the novel
The ruins of Polonnaruwa on the island of Sri Lanka form the basis for the story and the location is evoked with such passion and detail that the sights of the city, the heat of the sun and the chirping of the insects. Polonnaruwa was the ancient capital of Sri Lanka and it comes to life here.
The city was once great but following the events in the book, this city was never used as a royal seat again. Partly because it was too low and so the vantage points were much better elsewhere. Listen to the call of the mynah birds – featured at the start of the book and throughout – these are birds known for their happy song but the world they live in is far from an uplifting one.
Polonnaruwa ruins have to be seen to be believed. The remnants of the past and the old buildings, random stones and temples are testament to what used to be here. The statues, the history, the history in the making. Ruins now but the centre of 13th century life at one point.
The cover represents and evokes a world of mysticism with the swirling ink on the cover of the hardback and the monuments and elephants on the paperback. Birds, nature and a country of mystery and symbolism. The world of the scribe is evoked with such skill you can hear the scrape of the pen on the page – the dummala oils used in preparing the ink for writing and the burning of dried fruit skins to ward off insects when you were writing…
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
Note the vines and trees on the cover of the PB version of this book – they’re the ones that weave themselves around you and drag you right into the heart of the story. So quickly and quietly that you don’t know it’s happening. The ink so prominent on the HB cover is that in which the book is written I believe as the words will stain your heart for a long time to come.
The writing is like the brush strokes on a canvas – each one revealing a new side,a new hue to the overall picture forming before your eyes. Many sentences are poetry themselves and I urge you to read this book slowly to enjoy and allow the writing to wash over you.
Even the most innocent looking of sentences reveal the hurt and fear of the country at the time – in one scene, the poet is escorted through the palace by swordsmen, whose eyes could hurt you “just with the things they’d seen”. The novel is aptly seen through the eyes of a poet and this comes across in every aspect of the novel. I found it fascinating that a poet should try and subvert what is going on in his country via his writing – but then this is what goes on in many countries and why people are sometimes imprisoned for it. The River of Ink is filled with meaning and symbolism and is a novel to treasure.
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information:
Destination: Sri Lanka Departure Time: 13th Century
Fasten your seatbelts for a ride into the mystic past and sailing down the River of Ink
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