Mirage - Softcover

Chandraratna, Bandula

3.34

119 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0953240207 ISBN 13: 9780953240203

Publisher: Serendip Publishers, 1998

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There is a simplicity to Mirage, this story of impoverished lovers whose brief happiness is cut short in the harshest of ways, which belies the skill of the telling. Set in a closed desert kingdom in our own times, it tells how Sayeed, a good but unexceptional man, finds love with a woman who would have been beyond his reach had not poverty and widowhood brought her low. It is a classic tale, in the style of D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy, and set to become a kind of modern classic. The scene is set with unpretending tenderness: the hospital where Sayeed works, the kindness of his friends, the struggle to make a decent home for his new wife Latifa and her child, the bustle of his brother�s home, the simple wedding. Heat, dirt and squalor are the backdrop to the tragedy, Latifa, confused and far from home, the terrified victim. Petty jealousy, sexual desire and religious fervour combine to bring her down and to leave the reader stunned. As the book ends, there is a sense of an unfinished story � what will become of Latifa�s child? How will she survive in the oppressive world her mother has left her in?

Mirage emerged from 1999�s Booker judging as the unexpected favourite of the chairman, Gerald Kaufman, and other judges, just missing the final shortlist. It was later chosen by two of the judges, Boyd Tonkin and Shena Mackay as one of their books of that year. What made this championing of a first novel all the more surprising was the fact that it had been published by the author himself. Chandraratna plans to take up the story of Sayeed through the eyes of Latifa�s little daughter Leila in the second volume of a proposed trilogy.

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From the Publisher:

Mirage nearly got on the shortlist for the Booker Prize 1999
A tragedy of Middle Eastern manners

Boyd Tonkin, The Literary Editor of the Independent

Mirage by Bandula Chandraratna (Serendip Publishers, �6.75)

THIS YEAR, as invariably happens, most of the media palaver generated by the Booker Prize has focused on a few well-known names. Yet one of the joys of the judging process lies – as I discovered – in the sudden revelation of fresh talent from a quite unexpected source. In his speech at the Booker dinner on Monday, Gerald Kaufman spoke of his special affection for Mirage – a first, self-published novel from a Northamptonshire-based writer. Other judges admired it deeply, and it came close to gaining a place on the shortlist. ...

Most people in the West will read little about a society such as that of Saudi Arabia beyond the stereotypes, laced with scandal, that the media deliver from time to time. And that hi-tech tyranny itself has no interest in exposing to outsiders the cost of its forced march to a sort of feudal postmodernity. For that, we need novels as lucid, moving and compassionate as this one. I would urge you to read it.

For the complete review of Mirage by Mr Boyd Tonkin, visit: www.independent.co.uk Go to entertainment, books and search Mirage.

Also, read the Books of the Year and the comments by Sheena Mackay and Boyd Tonkin.

Private eye wrote about Mirage on 12 Nov. 1999.

Book Description:

A classic novel of star crossed lovers set in a closed desert kingdom, favourite of the Booker judges in 1999.

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