All Is Burning

by Jean Arasanayagam

This collection contains nineteen stories of rare power from the heart of war-ravaged Sri Lanka. In these stories Jean Arasanayagam brings us voices that are not normally heard: those of anonymous men and women searching for order and reason in the midst of a ruthless civil war: a young Sinhala man turns his back on an aimless upper-class existence and joins a group of Tamil refugees smuggling themselves into Germany; a woman goes out alone to a scene of carnage to try to find her daughter's lover among the dead; a maid returns from the rich desert city of Doha to the green half-jungle of her village in northern Sri Lanka and rediscovers hapiness despite the uncertain future.

Genres: Fiction

432 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1995

About the author

Jean Arasanayagam (born Jean Solomons, 1931 in Kandy, Sri Lanka) was an English-language poet and fiction writer. The theme in her work was ethnic and religious turmoil in Sri Lanka. Her husband, Thiyagarajah Arasanayagam and their two daughters, Devasundari and Parvathi, all share the same passion for writing, one, Parvathi has taken after Jean. She has made a mark of her own as a poet/writer.

Reviews

[Mick Canning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second collection of short stories I have read by Jean Arasanayagam, and I did approach it slightly fearful I would not enjoy it as much as the first (Peacocks And Dreams). if only because I was so impressed with that collection.
I needn't have worried. All Is Burning is a very fine collection of stories about ordinary people, largely those caught up in the horrors of the civil war in Sri lanka. These ordinary people are refugees, criminals, students, poor villagers, children and adults. There is a woman who searches amongst the bodies of men who have been massacred, searching for her daughter's lover. There are people who flee for their lives from mobs, and hide in fear in a refugee camp, always awaiting the mob to arrive. There is the professional killer assassinating politicians from either side.
There are other stories, too. the prostitutes who ply their trade because it is the only way they can survive, the pilgrims going from temple to temple, the Sri Lankan student in a Scottish city.
All these stories get deep under the skin of the protagonists, yet no matter how brutal the subject, the writing is always beautiful.

[Gabriela Oprea · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 maybe
it's a beautiful book and the stories are great, the choice of protagonists too. I just felt at times that the language was just too decorated at times and it got sidetracked into these long descriptions

[V · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, excellent book. Well worth a read- beautiful, evocative prose.