Bone China

Author(s): Roma Tearne

Fiction

An epic novel of love, loss and a family uprooted, set in the contrasting landscapes of war-torn Sri Lanka and immigrant London. Grace de Silva, wife of the shiftless but charming Aloysius, has five children and a crumbling marriage. Her eldest son, Jacob, wants desperately to go to England. Thornton, the most beautiful of all the children and his mother's favourite, dreams of becoming a poet. Alicia wants to be a concert pianist. Only Frieda has no ambition, other than to remain close to her family. But civil unrest is stirring in Sri Lanka and Christopher, the youngest and the rebel of the family, is soon caught up in the tragedy that follows. As the decade unfolds against a backdrop of increasing ethnic violence, Grace watches helplessly as the life she knows begins to crumble. Slowly, this once happy family is torn apart as four of her children each make the decision to leave their home. In London, the de Silvas are all, in their different ways, desperately homesick. Caught in a cultural clash between East and West, life is not as they expected. Only Thornton's daughter, Meeka, moves confidently into a world that is full of possibilities.But nothing is as easy as it seems and she must overcome heartbreak, a terrible mistake and single parenthood before she is finally able to see the extraordinary effects of history on her family's migration.

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'Told with intelligence and grace, "Bone China" is a compassionate take of an anguished spirit with an irrepressible quest for assimilation. Perhaps this single, slender volume of expression will get the author the acceptance she deserves.' Christopher Ondaatje, Sunday Telegraph 'One of those rich, nourishing family sagas that seizes the imagination ! Tearne carries her story triumphantly into the present.' The Times 'Tearne's evocative descriptions of landscapes, cities, wildlife and weather carry the novel through its geographical shifts.' TLS 'Tearne's second novel also deftly reveals the corrosive effects of civil strife on private lives and the redemptiveness of art. Probing loss and memory amid violence and displacement, her novels have affinities with Romesh Gunesekera's groundbreaking fiction.' Guardian More praise for 'Mosquito': '"Mosquito" lyrically captures a country drenched in both incomparable beauty and the stink of hatred.' Guardian 'Lovely, vividly described.' The Times 'Tearne brings her skills as a painter to her writing, creating some extraordinarily lovely portraits of Sri Lankan land and seascapes, a stunning backdrop to the changing horrors of the country's 20-year civil war. Anyone who has visited, or has a passing interest in, Sri Lanka, should read this beautiful novel.' Sunday Telegraph '"Mosquito" is a complex, ambitious book from a writer with a real talent for language. We will be hearing a great deal about Ms. Tearne in the future.' Lauren B. Davis, author of 'The Stubborn Season' and 'The Radiant City' '"Mosquito" is a beautifully moving, suspense-filled story about unlikely lovers that's gripping from start to finish. Set in Sri Lanka, it tells of a bittersweet romance between a young artist and a writer, a relationship that slowly becomes entangled in the mess of the local civil war. Tearne's ethereal descriptions of the Sri Lankan coastline and the powerful accounts of a country ripped apart by violence make for an emotional and exceptional novel.' Easy Living Magazine 'Beautiful and evocative!The true horror and unreason of terrorism as depicted here speak to our own worst fears and remind us that terrorism has been with us in many guises and many places for a much longer time than we tend to remember! Gripping and original.' Sydney Morning Herald '"Mosquito" shimmers with evocative prose but it also resonates with the darkness of men's cruelty. This is not a thriller, but the tension is palpable. Don't be surprised if the film rights are snapped up quickly.' The Courier Mail (Australia) 'There are some beautiful passages in "Mosquito"!These flashes of true beauty, along with an impressively sustained forward drive, are enough to make "Mosquito" an engaging and thought-provoking novel.' Times Literary Supplement

Roma Tearne arrived with her parents in Britain from Sri Lanka at the age of ten and trained as a painter, completing her MA at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford. For nearly twenty years her work as a painter, installation artist, filmmaker and novelist has dealt with traces of history and memory in public and private spaces. Roma's first novel, "Mosquito", was published by HarperCollins in March 2007. She is married with three children and lives in Oxford.

General Fields

  • : 9780007257508
  • : HarperCollins Publishers
  • : HarperPress
  • : 0.299
  • : 01 April 2009
  • : 197mm X 130mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 01 April 2009
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Roma Tearne
  • : Paperback
  • : 823.92
  • : 368