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Brixton Beach
London. On a bright July morning a series of bombs bring the capital to a halt. Simon Swann, a medic from one of the large teaching hospitals, is searching frantically amongst the chaos and the rubble. All around police sirens and ambulances are screaming but Simon does not hear. He is out of breath because he has been running, and he is distraught. But who is he looking for?
To find out we have first to go back thirty years to a small island in the Indian Ocean where a little girl named Alice Fonseka is learning to ride a bicycle on the beach. The island is Sri Lanka, with its community on the brink of civil war. Alice's life is about to change forever. Soon she will have to leave for England, abandoning her beloved grandfather, and accompanied by her mother, Sita, a woman broken by a series of terrible events.
In London, Alice grows into womanhood. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she has a son. Slowly she fulfills her grandfather's prophecy and becomes an artist. Eventually she finds true love. But London in the twenty first century is a mass of migration and suspicion. The war on terror has begun and everyone, even Simon Swann, middle class, rational, medic that he is, will be caught up in this war in the most unexpected and terrible way.
To find out we have first to go back thirty years to a small island in the Indian Ocean where a little girl named Alice Fonseka is learning to ride a bicycle on the beach. The island is Sri Lanka, with its community on the brink of civil war. Alice's life is about to change forever. Soon she will have to leave for England, abandoning her beloved grandfather, and accompanied by her mother, Sita, a woman broken by a series of terrible events.
In London, Alice grows into womanhood. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she has a son. Slowly she fulfills her grandfather's prophecy and becomes an artist. Eventually she finds true love. But London in the twenty first century is a mass of migration and suspicion. The war on terror has begun and everyone, even Simon Swann, middle class, rational, medic that he is, will be caught up in this war in the most unexpected and terrible way.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published May 28, 2009
33 people are currently reading
746 people want to read
About the author
Roma Tearne
13 books94 followersRoma Tearne is a Sri Lankan born artist living and working in Britain. She arrived, with her parents in this country at the age of ten. She 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, and filmmaker has dealt with the traces of history and memory within public and private spaces.
In 1998 the Royal Academy of Arts, London, highlighted one of her paintings, “Watching the Procession,” for its Summer Exhibition. As a result her work became more widely known and was included in the South Asian Arts Festival at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1992
In 1993, Cadogan Contempories, London, began showing her paintings. In 2000, the Arts Council of England funded a touring exhibition of her work. Entitled ‘The House of Small Things’, this exhibition consisted of paintings and photographs based on childhood memories. They were the start of what was to become a preoccupation on issues of loss and migration.
She became Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 2002 and it was while working at the Ashmolean, as a response to public interest, that she began to write.
In 2003 she had a solo exhibition, Nel Corpo delle città (In the Body of the City), at the MLAC Gallery in Rome.
In 2006 she was awarded a three-year AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Fellowship, at Brookes University, Oxford where she worked on the relationship between narrative and memory in museums throughout Europe.
Out of this work came Watermuseum a film set in Venice which was shown at the Coastings exhibition in Nottingham in 2008. In 2008 she received funding from the Arts council of England in order to make a film on memory and migration. This film is due to be premiered in 2010.
Her second novel Bone China was published in April 2008 and her third Brixton Beach will be published in June 2009.
She will be having her first solo exhibition since 2001 at the 198 Gallery, Brixton at the same time.
Roma Tearne is currently a Creative Writing Fellow at Brookes University, Oxford.
In 1998 the Royal Academy of Arts, London, highlighted one of her paintings, “Watching the Procession,” for its Summer Exhibition. As a result her work became more widely known and was included in the South Asian Arts Festival at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1992
In 1993, Cadogan Contempories, London, began showing her paintings. In 2000, the Arts Council of England funded a touring exhibition of her work. Entitled ‘The House of Small Things’, this exhibition consisted of paintings and photographs based on childhood memories. They were the start of what was to become a preoccupation on issues of loss and migration.
She became Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford in 2002 and it was while working at the Ashmolean, as a response to public interest, that she began to write.
In 2003 she had a solo exhibition, Nel Corpo delle città (In the Body of the City), at the MLAC Gallery in Rome.
In 2006 she was awarded a three-year AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) Fellowship, at Brookes University, Oxford where she worked on the relationship between narrative and memory in museums throughout Europe.
Out of this work came Watermuseum a film set in Venice which was shown at the Coastings exhibition in Nottingham in 2008. In 2008 she received funding from the Arts council of England in order to make a film on memory and migration. This film is due to be premiered in 2010.
Her second novel Bone China was published in April 2008 and her third Brixton Beach will be published in June 2009.
She will be having her first solo exhibition since 2001 at the 198 Gallery, Brixton at the same time.
Roma Tearne is currently a Creative Writing Fellow at Brookes University, Oxford.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 157 reviews
December 20, 2019
This is the first I have read of Roma Tearne. She is a Sri Lankan artist and writer whose family moved to Britain in 1964. Tearne had a Tamil father and Sinhalese mother and the long-running civil war was very immediate to her and runs through her work. This book is a family saga with a dual setting; Sri Lanka and London.
The novel revolves around Alice Fonseca and her family; at the beginning of the novel she is nine and living in Sri Lanka; she has a Tamil father and Sinhalese mother. The first half of the book takes place in Sri Lanka and has the feel of an idyll at the very beginning. Alice spends a good deal of time with her grandfather Bee, collecting on the beach and watching him in his studio, learning a love of art. However the storm clouds do begin to gather. The civil war gets closer and more dangerous, Alice’s mother loses a child at birth owing to the negligence of a Sinhalese doctor (further alienating Alice’s Tamil father). Bee and his wife assist Tamil refugees and put themselves in danger. The descriptions of light and place clearly mark Tearne as an artist and this is one of the great strengths of the book:
“Words were not his thing; explanations were best done with brushes. The colour of a place, the angle of the light, a tree, these spoke volumes”.
Tearne also writes with a sense of musicality, hence this description of the civil war:
“The war began drumming again. After months of silence it marched in two-four time; a two-conductor orchestra without direction”.
Alice and her parents move to London where her parents’ marriage breaks up and her father spends much more time with working for the Tamil Tigers whilst her mother gradually withdraws from life. Alice survives because of her art which provides her with a way of expressing herself. Alice marries an Englishman and has a child. This relationship does not last and Alice moves her mother in to live with her and her son and names the house Brixton Beach. Tearne’s description of Alice’s mother’s dementia is well written and coherent and done with a light touch. Towards the end of the novel Alice begins a new relationship. The novel begins and ends with the 7/7 bombings in London. As a plot device it is a little forced, but provides a link between the terrorism provoked by western involvement in the Middle East and the very bloody, but ignored, civil war in Sri Lanka.
Tearne does not spare the readers emotions and the female characters are very strong. However, apart from Bee (who holds the whole thing together), the male characters are rather two-dimensional and there are some rather trite moments as well. Despite the faults the novel reads well and the descriptions of Sri Lanka are vivid and the strongest part of the whole novel. The point is also made that the obsessions of the west are not the only things that are happening in the world and that British imperialism had a good deal to do with the working out of events as well.
The novel revolves around Alice Fonseca and her family; at the beginning of the novel she is nine and living in Sri Lanka; she has a Tamil father and Sinhalese mother. The first half of the book takes place in Sri Lanka and has the feel of an idyll at the very beginning. Alice spends a good deal of time with her grandfather Bee, collecting on the beach and watching him in his studio, learning a love of art. However the storm clouds do begin to gather. The civil war gets closer and more dangerous, Alice’s mother loses a child at birth owing to the negligence of a Sinhalese doctor (further alienating Alice’s Tamil father). Bee and his wife assist Tamil refugees and put themselves in danger. The descriptions of light and place clearly mark Tearne as an artist and this is one of the great strengths of the book:
“Words were not his thing; explanations were best done with brushes. The colour of a place, the angle of the light, a tree, these spoke volumes”.
Tearne also writes with a sense of musicality, hence this description of the civil war:
“The war began drumming again. After months of silence it marched in two-four time; a two-conductor orchestra without direction”.
Alice and her parents move to London where her parents’ marriage breaks up and her father spends much more time with working for the Tamil Tigers whilst her mother gradually withdraws from life. Alice survives because of her art which provides her with a way of expressing herself. Alice marries an Englishman and has a child. This relationship does not last and Alice moves her mother in to live with her and her son and names the house Brixton Beach. Tearne’s description of Alice’s mother’s dementia is well written and coherent and done with a light touch. Towards the end of the novel Alice begins a new relationship. The novel begins and ends with the 7/7 bombings in London. As a plot device it is a little forced, but provides a link between the terrorism provoked by western involvement in the Middle East and the very bloody, but ignored, civil war in Sri Lanka.
Tearne does not spare the readers emotions and the female characters are very strong. However, apart from Bee (who holds the whole thing together), the male characters are rather two-dimensional and there are some rather trite moments as well. Despite the faults the novel reads well and the descriptions of Sri Lanka are vivid and the strongest part of the whole novel. The point is also made that the obsessions of the west are not the only things that are happening in the world and that British imperialism had a good deal to do with the working out of events as well.
September 19, 2011
The rear cover of this book reads...
When family tragedy strikes, Alice Fonseka, a dreamy, artistic child with a Singhalese mother and Tamil father, leaves the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. Unable to bear the injustice of what has happened, her family heads for England.
...That sounds promising I thought, a tale of an immigrant in London. Sadly Brixton Beach does not live up to it's promise. This novel is set half in Sri Lanka and half in London. This book was written in 2009 and has 408 pages. It is not until page 226 when Alice actually arrives in England. This story is a slow and poor read. There is nothing gripping about this tale, it lacks a core and has no bite. This book is very easy to put down and there is no mystery or conspiracy going on.
Brixton Beach is obsessed with art, colour and light. It is very shallow on immigrant culture. This story is rather sad and once Alice comes to London, this increasing sadness dominates this book. It just gets sadder and sadder. This is not a book to enjoy and is not really entertaining. It is simply a tale of increasing sadness and despair.
This novel has a bad structure. The book starts at the end and then develops from the beginning when Alice is 9 years old. So straight away you will guess the ending, which spoils the actual ending on Page 403 from being rather dramatic.
When family tragedy strikes, Alice Fonseka, a dreamy, artistic child with a Singhalese mother and Tamil father, leaves the beautiful island of Sri Lanka. Unable to bear the injustice of what has happened, her family heads for England.
...That sounds promising I thought, a tale of an immigrant in London. Sadly Brixton Beach does not live up to it's promise. This novel is set half in Sri Lanka and half in London. This book was written in 2009 and has 408 pages. It is not until page 226 when Alice actually arrives in England. This story is a slow and poor read. There is nothing gripping about this tale, it lacks a core and has no bite. This book is very easy to put down and there is no mystery or conspiracy going on.
Brixton Beach is obsessed with art, colour and light. It is very shallow on immigrant culture. This story is rather sad and once Alice comes to London, this increasing sadness dominates this book. It just gets sadder and sadder. This is not a book to enjoy and is not really entertaining. It is simply a tale of increasing sadness and despair.
This novel has a bad structure. The book starts at the end and then develops from the beginning when Alice is 9 years old. So straight away you will guess the ending, which spoils the actual ending on Page 403 from being rather dramatic.
May 13, 2010
The lasting impression you are left with after reading this book is, as most of the reviews suggest, how beautifully written it is.
Although the plotline is slow moving, the characters are rich and I found myself growing increasingly fond of Bea in particular as I turned the pages. Seeing his adoration of his grandaughter reminded me of my own grandfathers love for me and I would hope sparked recognition of this unique type of love in every reader, even if it wasn't neccesarily that of a grandparent.
I was surprised to find however as I reached the end that the novel was actually quite tragic in many aspects as very little happened that could be construed as upbeat or positive. Maybe it was the delicacy of the prose that distracted me from this fact but once it occured to me I did find myself wanting a happier ending for alice, real life I suppose though isn't a fairy tale and so this certainly wasn't.
I did also find myself a little dissapointed in her character as the book progressed as the strong, vivacious child, full of personality seemed to dissapear before our eyes as the trials of life and the split from her beloved family sucked away all of her faith. The character of her mother too I found a little depressing and so a criticism I would have of the book is that I failed to see hope shine through in it at all. I therefore wouldn't reccomend it as a light read in any sense although if you're looking for something to pose some interesting questions on the fairness of life but that isn't written with too much of an intellectual undertone then I'd say this fits the bill.
Although the plotline is slow moving, the characters are rich and I found myself growing increasingly fond of Bea in particular as I turned the pages. Seeing his adoration of his grandaughter reminded me of my own grandfathers love for me and I would hope sparked recognition of this unique type of love in every reader, even if it wasn't neccesarily that of a grandparent.
I was surprised to find however as I reached the end that the novel was actually quite tragic in many aspects as very little happened that could be construed as upbeat or positive. Maybe it was the delicacy of the prose that distracted me from this fact but once it occured to me I did find myself wanting a happier ending for alice, real life I suppose though isn't a fairy tale and so this certainly wasn't.
I did also find myself a little dissapointed in her character as the book progressed as the strong, vivacious child, full of personality seemed to dissapear before our eyes as the trials of life and the split from her beloved family sucked away all of her faith. The character of her mother too I found a little depressing and so a criticism I would have of the book is that I failed to see hope shine through in it at all. I therefore wouldn't reccomend it as a light read in any sense although if you're looking for something to pose some interesting questions on the fairness of life but that isn't written with too much of an intellectual undertone then I'd say this fits the bill.
November 30, 2011
A wonderful but very sad book set in Sri Lanka and Brixton - I wept buckets.
December 30, 2010
I enjoy what one might call 'emigrant' (or 'immigrant') literature and decided to read this after hearing an interview with Roma Tearne on BBC Radio 4. I was not disappointed. The troubles in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) go back quite a way and, other than the war with the Tamil Tigers, are largely unknown and unacknowledged. Alice Fonseka is a child who straddles an unstraddle-able divide: her father is Tamil, her mother Sinhalese, so Alice and her sister are both and neither, an extremely uncomfortable place to be. Her father leaves Sri Lanka for England, but it is a while before he sends for his wife and children. In England, his Tamil compatriots try to make him reject his Sinhalese wife. Bit by bit, they, time, distance and his own character accomplish this. In the meantime, his wife and children spend time with her parents, who actively but secretly support the cause of Tamil equality, going so far as to hide a wounded Tamil activist. Finally the wife and children go to England, the grandparents are massacred by Sinhalese and Alice feels her ties to the country she loves have been severed. These roots resurface in her adult life in her art, but she now finds, after marrying an Englishman, that her own son is in the unenviable position of being neither English nor Sri Lankan, cut off from his mother's roots, but not accepted for what he is in his father's country. And the love between Alice and her husband withers and dies, and only at the end does she find true love. The ending is shocking, but nonetheless 'right': we choose whom we love and why, whom we accept, and we choose what we are.
Really good read.
Really good read.
November 18, 2012
The location of this book was so meaningful having spent the Holiday with Nic at Mount Lavinia earlier this year. The poignant life of loss an regret was so painful and the ending so fitting of a person who having been whisked away from violence in her childhood to die by the sword or the hand of a terrorist was somehow so very cruel when you believed that she had perhaps found her peace and love at last. Sitting her writing this I almost forgot that Alice and her mother where not one person but that loss and lack of love could carry on over the generations seemed to be too shocking.
A few quotes that I would like to remember “Memories were all he could give her, no matter how far she travelled, no mater if she never returned, still her memories would last forever.” “If you are capable of seeing beauty in one place you will see it in another, you simply have to learn the way of seeing it.” The inscription from an inspirational art book that Alice read; “May this book of your childhood become a guide to your later life; in it you’ll realise how to grownup; you’ll find memories and dates you would otherwise forget; events that might drown in the stream of experience, but are important for you. None of this may get lost my beloved child because there is nothing that sustains us more in the hardship of our lives than a review of our childhood.”
What really happened to the Tamil tigers defeated in war or a population annihilated by genocide?
A few quotes that I would like to remember “Memories were all he could give her, no matter how far she travelled, no mater if she never returned, still her memories would last forever.” “If you are capable of seeing beauty in one place you will see it in another, you simply have to learn the way of seeing it.” The inscription from an inspirational art book that Alice read; “May this book of your childhood become a guide to your later life; in it you’ll realise how to grownup; you’ll find memories and dates you would otherwise forget; events that might drown in the stream of experience, but are important for you. None of this may get lost my beloved child because there is nothing that sustains us more in the hardship of our lives than a review of our childhood.”
What really happened to the Tamil tigers defeated in war or a population annihilated by genocide?
January 28, 2010
Now a TV Book Club choice, what an excellent read this was! I've had a bit of an aversion recently to books set in the Indian sub-continent, but this one's revived my interest. You can really tell Roma Tearne's an artist because the descriptions of both Sri Lanka and London are incredibly vivid. Superb use of language, and some really well-drawn female characters - Alice is a joy both as child and grown-up. Grandfather Bee was a superb character, but have to say I did find the other male characters a bit sketchy. Learned a bit about the war in Ceylon, and the transition to London portrayed really well the problems of assimilating to such a dramatically different society. Loved it - highly recommended.
May 30, 2011
Ow - this book should have a warning on the cover. A very good read but brutal to the reader. So much loss to bear. Intense. Characterisation was gripping and the sense of place was very atmospheric especially Sri Lanka and the beach. I felt the early days in London were less successfully wrought - no coverage of the racial mix of the school / community which I needed to get my bearings and understand their experiences.
I would like to pass this on - but I'm not sure I'd want to put family / friends through it - it hurt to read. Feel like I'm in mourning now for several of the characters. Very heavy.....
And still the killing continues...
I would like to pass this on - but I'm not sure I'd want to put family / friends through it - it hurt to read. Feel like I'm in mourning now for several of the characters. Very heavy.....
And still the killing continues...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2011
A really good book, which was written beautifully.
Roma Tearne managed to use very few words but sent your mind spinning. Her powers of observation are quite unbelievable.
Although a sad tale from a very sad situation in Ceylon to gritty inner city London, this book just shines.
I suspect it is semi autobiographical, and the pathos within the story is huge.
Roma Tearne managed to use very few words but sent your mind spinning. Her powers of observation are quite unbelievable.
Although a sad tale from a very sad situation in Ceylon to gritty inner city London, this book just shines.
I suspect it is semi autobiographical, and the pathos within the story is huge.
February 26, 2010
I loved this book. I hadn't some across Roma Tearne before but I shall be reading her earlier two novels now. Beautiful writing - metaphors that show she thinks instinctively as an artist. The impact of war and the redemptive effect of art were cleverly woven throughout the story.
April 13, 2014
Another heartbreakingly sad but beautiful book from Roma Tearne. It had me smiling and crying in equal measure. The descriptions are so real you can see and smell them, the heartbreak and tragedy keeps coming, this book will stay with me for a long time.
March 8, 2025
Set in Sri Lanka and England, Brixton beach is a book about a family migrating to England from Sri Lanka during its years of turmoil. Alice Fonseka, born to a Tamil father and a Sinhalese mother spent a great deal of her childhood in the blue coastline of Ceylon, in a sea house, under the tropical sun. On a gloomy ship, destiny brought her to another part of the world, where the sun is not as bright, and the sea was gone from her sight. But it remained in her heart.
The nine year old grows up in a foreign land. Her parents, each struggling with their own issues. Home, Ceylon, was out of sight, not quite out of mind. The stories of home reach their new home in London, bit by bit, via censored letters, half broken telephone calls. It’s almost always news of loss. When the family gets used to the norm of once left home, the news still finds them with a new level of shocks. The tantalizing story of the turbulent time of Sri Lanka, its people’s grit to overcome the man-made turmoil and a family’s endurance to carry on life amidst all — glued the story together.
Loved Tearne’s writing as she always traps the essence of Sri Lanka in her writing. This book, seemed to me as her autobiography in parts, carried both the breeze of Sri Lankan coasts and her time in London when the yearning for a long left sea gave birth to an artist inside her. Thanks to Barbara for recommending this book to me! I enjoyed my read, partly read on a trip to Sri Lanka. Discovering the book’s references in the streets of Sri Lanka was an extra joy to my trip!
My notes and highlights from the book
April 17, 2019
This was the perfect novel for me to read after returning from a holiday in Sri Lanka. The horrors of the civil war there have been neatly papered over for tourists but echoes remain. It was salutary to immerse myself in the characters and experiences created by Tearne who fled Sri Lanka with her family when she was very young.
Tearne's character, Alice Foseka, experiences the same fate. Alice, who has a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father, is a precocious ten year old with a close relationship to her Singhalese grandfather, Bee. Bee is an artist and Alice sees the world through the lens of his artistic vision, absorbing the sights and smells of her birth country in a way she will never forget. The novel is intensely visual and emotional. As Alice grows to womanhood, she continues to be an outsider until she is able to transform her losses into redemptive art. The name she gives her London home - Brixton Beach - is an example of how she manages to bring the beauty of her homeland into her lonely immigrant life.
The novel is not perfectly structured and I felt that the opening sequence gave unnecessary clues to the novel's ending. The period of Alice's adult life was also rather rushed in comparison to the detail of her life in Sri Lanka. However, as a whole I found the novel deeply moving and an important reminder of a conflict that has too readily slipped from our minds. It is a long time since I wept openly at the end of a novel but I did as I finished Brixton Beach.
Tearne's character, Alice Foseka, experiences the same fate. Alice, who has a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father, is a precocious ten year old with a close relationship to her Singhalese grandfather, Bee. Bee is an artist and Alice sees the world through the lens of his artistic vision, absorbing the sights and smells of her birth country in a way she will never forget. The novel is intensely visual and emotional. As Alice grows to womanhood, she continues to be an outsider until she is able to transform her losses into redemptive art. The name she gives her London home - Brixton Beach - is an example of how she manages to bring the beauty of her homeland into her lonely immigrant life.
The novel is not perfectly structured and I felt that the opening sequence gave unnecessary clues to the novel's ending. The period of Alice's adult life was also rather rushed in comparison to the detail of her life in Sri Lanka. However, as a whole I found the novel deeply moving and an important reminder of a conflict that has too readily slipped from our minds. It is a long time since I wept openly at the end of a novel but I did as I finished Brixton Beach.
December 4, 2023
3.5 stars.
The scenes set in Sri Lanka and Alice’s teen years in the UK are the strongest parts of the book. The last 100 pages or so are the novel’s weakest, I don’t quite understand why the novel ended so anti-climactic.
The scenes set in Sri Lanka and Alice’s teen years in the UK are the strongest parts of the book. The last 100 pages or so are the novel’s weakest, I don’t quite understand why the novel ended so anti-climactic.
December 27, 2011
Brixton Beach by Roma Tearne presents a vast project. Its story crosses the globe, beginning in Sri Lanka and ending in Britain. Great events befall its characters, but throughout their lives seem to be writ small against a backdrop of history.
The novel opens with an apt quote from Jack Kerouac – All life is a foreign country. This idea forms substantially more than a theme, in the no matter how secure the book’s characters might appear – and equally however insecure – they never really seem to be at home with themselves.
We meet the Fonsekas in Colombo. They live near the beach in this frenetic city. Alice is a nine-year-old. Her parents, Stanley and Sita are a mixed marriage, Tamil and Sinhalese. Alice’s grandparents, Bee and Kamala, are happily married in their own way. Bee is something of an artist. The grandparent show significant wisdom.
But things are stirring in Sri Lanka. There is a smell of conflict, a hint or war. A mixed marriage is hard to sustain, and its offspring don’t fit into anyone’s interests or desires. Alice grows into a rather isolated child. She has friends, but then she doesn’t. She does well at school, and then she doesn’t. She makes things, shares her grandfather’s artistic bent.
Lives in paradise grow steadily more complicated, apparently less sustainable. Stanley, Alice’s father, decides that his future, and eventually his family’s, lies in Britain. He books a sea passage and an unscheduled stop-over in Greece opens his eyes to ancient cincture and provides other activities that always threatened, but until then never materialised.
In Britain he ekes out an immigrant’s lot, doing whatever he can. When Sita and Alice eventually join him, he has changed and they don’t fit in. They can’t. Perhaps no-one ever does, anywhere. Sita mourns the child she lost to her own destruction as she works from home on her sewing machine. Alice doesn’t get on at school, except with a chain-smoking art teacher. And so life progresses, from one mistake to the next, with an idealised past becoming a new paradise, a place that it perhaps never was. But there is no going back. Conflict has intervened. Lives have been lost and there will be more to follow.
Marriages fail. There are short passionate affairs. There is much imagined longing. Roma Tearne’s story thus meanders through its themes, but without ever concentrating on any particular one to create a lasting impression. The characters seem more confused than reflecting, more victims of events than their instigators. Wherever they are, they remain foreign.
The novel opens with an apt quote from Jack Kerouac – All life is a foreign country. This idea forms substantially more than a theme, in the no matter how secure the book’s characters might appear – and equally however insecure – they never really seem to be at home with themselves.
We meet the Fonsekas in Colombo. They live near the beach in this frenetic city. Alice is a nine-year-old. Her parents, Stanley and Sita are a mixed marriage, Tamil and Sinhalese. Alice’s grandparents, Bee and Kamala, are happily married in their own way. Bee is something of an artist. The grandparent show significant wisdom.
But things are stirring in Sri Lanka. There is a smell of conflict, a hint or war. A mixed marriage is hard to sustain, and its offspring don’t fit into anyone’s interests or desires. Alice grows into a rather isolated child. She has friends, but then she doesn’t. She does well at school, and then she doesn’t. She makes things, shares her grandfather’s artistic bent.
Lives in paradise grow steadily more complicated, apparently less sustainable. Stanley, Alice’s father, decides that his future, and eventually his family’s, lies in Britain. He books a sea passage and an unscheduled stop-over in Greece opens his eyes to ancient cincture and provides other activities that always threatened, but until then never materialised.
In Britain he ekes out an immigrant’s lot, doing whatever he can. When Sita and Alice eventually join him, he has changed and they don’t fit in. They can’t. Perhaps no-one ever does, anywhere. Sita mourns the child she lost to her own destruction as she works from home on her sewing machine. Alice doesn’t get on at school, except with a chain-smoking art teacher. And so life progresses, from one mistake to the next, with an idealised past becoming a new paradise, a place that it perhaps never was. But there is no going back. Conflict has intervened. Lives have been lost and there will be more to follow.
Marriages fail. There are short passionate affairs. There is much imagined longing. Roma Tearne’s story thus meanders through its themes, but without ever concentrating on any particular one to create a lasting impression. The characters seem more confused than reflecting, more victims of events than their instigators. Wherever they are, they remain foreign.
April 6, 2010
This was a beautifully written book, telling the story of Alice Fonseka growing up in Sri Lanka with a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father. The war between the two sides strengthens and Alice's father Stanley applies for a passport to England ... Alice and her mother Sita will follow in three months leaving behind Alice's devoted Grandma and Grandad, Bee and Kamala.
The descriptions of Sri Lanka are so vivid you can almost taste the salty air and smell the coconut oil. England is drab, cold, grey and damp in comparison.
The book follows Alice (and her family) as she struggles to find her place in this new country, her schooling, her artwork, her marriage and the birth of her son Ravi. We also learn the fate of those left behind in Sri Lanka. The book concludes .. as it started in the prologue... with the retelling of the devastating London bombings of 7.7.2005 .. and we follow Alice as she makes her way to Baker Street to catch a tube on the Bakerloo line.
On the whole I liked this book but it did seem to move too slowly at times. It seems to take an awful long time before Alice embarks for England (six long chapters I think) ... and as we already know she's going (from the title and the premise) I was impatient for her to begin her journey. I loved the relationship between Alice and her Grandfather Bee .. very moving and it was easy to connect with Alice as a child .. as an adult it became harder as she seemed to become more emotionally disconnected to the world and .. though I don't think I was meant to .. I found myself struggling to keep that connection with her. You never stop empathising with her though and hoping that she will eventually find hope and love.
Reading the authors biog at the front of the book it's clear that this is part autobiographical .. Roma came to England from Sri Lanka to escape the war (she had the same parentage) at about the same time as Alice and so it's steeped in authenticity and truth.
It is relentlessly depressing though .. hope is given out in very small thimblefuls .. and for that reason I couldn't say I loved reading it but it was thought provoking and very touching.
The descriptions of Sri Lanka are so vivid you can almost taste the salty air and smell the coconut oil. England is drab, cold, grey and damp in comparison.
The book follows Alice (and her family) as she struggles to find her place in this new country, her schooling, her artwork, her marriage and the birth of her son Ravi. We also learn the fate of those left behind in Sri Lanka. The book concludes .. as it started in the prologue... with the retelling of the devastating London bombings of 7.7.2005 .. and we follow Alice as she makes her way to Baker Street to catch a tube on the Bakerloo line.
On the whole I liked this book but it did seem to move too slowly at times. It seems to take an awful long time before Alice embarks for England (six long chapters I think) ... and as we already know she's going (from the title and the premise) I was impatient for her to begin her journey. I loved the relationship between Alice and her Grandfather Bee .. very moving and it was easy to connect with Alice as a child .. as an adult it became harder as she seemed to become more emotionally disconnected to the world and .. though I don't think I was meant to .. I found myself struggling to keep that connection with her. You never stop empathising with her though and hoping that she will eventually find hope and love.
Reading the authors biog at the front of the book it's clear that this is part autobiographical .. Roma came to England from Sri Lanka to escape the war (she had the same parentage) at about the same time as Alice and so it's steeped in authenticity and truth.
It is relentlessly depressing though .. hope is given out in very small thimblefuls .. and for that reason I couldn't say I loved reading it but it was thought provoking and very touching.
June 13, 2009
`Brixton Beach' opens dramatically with the horrific events of the 2005 London bombings - a beginning that immediately pulled me into the novel. The descriptions of the after-math of the bombing are vividly drawn, quite disturbing and very thought-provoking.
The story then moves back thirty years to war-torn Ceylon - and concentrates on the story of Alice, the daughter of a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father. The major character in Alice's life is her grandfather Bee - a strong, brave man with family values and the good of his country at the heart of everything that he does.
As a child of parents from two different cultures, Alice is treated as something as an outsider and after a tragedy within the family she and her mother follow her father to England to find a better life.
The novel is a story of homeland, identity and relationships, and these are all tested when the family are in England
This is a colourful and descriptive novel which I enjoyed immensely, towards the end of the story I found it very difficult to put down. The ending is dramatically written and the story ends on the same day that it begins - the July 2005 London bombings.
I think this novel would spark some fascinating book group debate and will certainly stay with me for quite a while.
The story then moves back thirty years to war-torn Ceylon - and concentrates on the story of Alice, the daughter of a Singhalese mother and a Tamil father. The major character in Alice's life is her grandfather Bee - a strong, brave man with family values and the good of his country at the heart of everything that he does.
As a child of parents from two different cultures, Alice is treated as something as an outsider and after a tragedy within the family she and her mother follow her father to England to find a better life.
The novel is a story of homeland, identity and relationships, and these are all tested when the family are in England
This is a colourful and descriptive novel which I enjoyed immensely, towards the end of the story I found it very difficult to put down. The ending is dramatically written and the story ends on the same day that it begins - the July 2005 London bombings.
I think this novel would spark some fascinating book group debate and will certainly stay with me for quite a while.
January 20, 2010
I wanted to like this book more than I did as it has a lot of potential. Tearne has re-created both the beauty and desperateness of Sri Lanka in the 1970s -- colours, beaches -- and political upheaval. Her depiction of Sri Lanka is excellent, and she's able to contrast it with London well.
Where Tearne lets me down when it comes to characterisation. Some, such as Grandfather Bee, are fully developed, and I miss him when he's not in a chapter. However, others, such as Stanley, a rather significant character, seems like cardboard. Even Sita becomes a stereotype of herself just when she needs our compassion the most. And there are times when I confess I started skimming.
Her descriptions of the 7 July 2005 London bombing, with which she starts the novel, are vivid -- but a mite predictable in how they are used.
I've dithered between giving this book two or three stars. In the end, I've decided on three because of Tearne's incredible depiction of Sri Lanka. But there could have been so much more to this book in terms of message, characterisation and plot.
Where Tearne lets me down when it comes to characterisation. Some, such as Grandfather Bee, are fully developed, and I miss him when he's not in a chapter. However, others, such as Stanley, a rather significant character, seems like cardboard. Even Sita becomes a stereotype of herself just when she needs our compassion the most. And there are times when I confess I started skimming.
Her descriptions of the 7 July 2005 London bombing, with which she starts the novel, are vivid -- but a mite predictable in how they are used.
I've dithered between giving this book two or three stars. In the end, I've decided on three because of Tearne's incredible depiction of Sri Lanka. But there could have been so much more to this book in terms of message, characterisation and plot.
September 13, 2017
This book was wonderful for about the first 2/3rds. Tearne writes beautifully, as an artist. Depictions of Sri lanka and London were evocative and it was interesting to get some sense of the troubles in Sri Lanka (though more clarity would have been welcome). But, sadly the book descended into a dirge of repetition ( I was impressed by how Tearne found so many different ways to say the same thing) and protraction of themes. Alice became as tedious to me as she had to her husband. Her grandfather's voice from the grave and the decline into a rather squishy love story was not in keeping with the rest of the book. Disappointing in the end. Should have been trimmed by a good editor.
August 25, 2012
what a beautiful book! there is some lovely imagery as the reader see's life in sri lanka through the eyes of a young girl. I loved her relationship with her grandfather and the people she meets, along with the juxtaposition of her life as an adult living in the completely different world of brixton. it also shows in a real way, an account of the conflict with the tamil tigers through our protagonists viewpoint. she may not be tamil, or sri lankan, but still witnesses how it destroyed peoples lives.
March 28, 2013
The novel follows Alice Fonseka over her life from Ceylon/Sri Lanka to London. The parts set in Ceylon/Sri Lanka were fascinating and this is a good example of how novels can shine light on political and historical situations that are educational too. I liked Grandfather Bee a lot and there are some wonderful descriptions in this book. It's also a very sad book and there wasn't much relief from it. Art is a redemptive power in this narrative for Alice and Bee and I'd quite like to see Brixton Beach as the colours sound amazing...
December 6, 2015
Having recently travelled to Sri Lanka,this book took me straight back into the humidity, lushness and beauty of that country. Whilst travelling I knew little of the conflict between the Tamils and Sinhalese, until I read Brixton Beach; wishing I had read it along my journey. Ms Tearne is a writer I wish to emulate, her gift of taking the reader into the depths of her experience, losing them in the characters, and bringing attention to the world, an act of terrorism that few know about. Loved it. Need to read more of her works.
July 29, 2011
I really enjoyed the parts of the book that were set in Sri Lanka as the descriptions conjured up images of stunning beaches and clear skies (which having been to the country is my memory). I also identified with the characters who were well developed and felt real. The parts of the book set in London made starck the contrast between the two countries and the lives lead there. I would recommend this, particularly as a holiday read.
July 1, 2015
A moving tale of displacement, community dissension and kinship. The novel isn't flawless but has enough of a grip on human nature, in both its good and bad guises, to keep the reader engaged. The descriptions of the community tensions of 1970s and 80s Sri Lanka are nicely balanced by the those of friendships and and family ties. As the story unfolds, you see the best and worst that mankind can do.
January 22, 2014
One of the most beautifully written books I've read for a long while; the use of descriptive language to evoke the beaches of Ceylon and the contrasting bleakness of Brixton is wonderful. The story is the epitome of human tragedy and addresses the issues of injustice, unfairness and potential if only circumstances had been different.
October 30, 2015
Oh my gosh, what a vibrant, stimulating start to the book. You can practically smell the sea in the pages! Alice is very much alive and part of your world. However, in the second half she is a stranger. It feels as though another author has finished the second half. This broke my heart more than the story.
August 29, 2018
The journey of straddling two societies/cultures was intriguing at first but the utter despair throughout 95% of the book was just paralyzing. The empathy you feel for the characters just turns into complete anguish and hopelessness, which, admittedly was probably purposeful by the author. It was just too much and too disheartening for my taste.
September 21, 2014
I read this beautiful book twice I then HAD to go to Sri Lanka. Three times read and love
November 8, 2015
it had me crying very badly and made my whole day moody.
man life is really short... it began with her 9 b'day and ended with her death...
her sorrows...!!!!!!!!!!
man life is really short... it began with her 9 b'day and ended with her death...
her sorrows...!!!!!!!!!!
February 18, 2017
Alice Fonseka is the mixed race daughter of a Tamil father Stanley and Singhalese mother Sita. At the start of the book while Alice stays with her beloved artist grandfather Bee, Sita loses her baby to the neglect of a Singhalese doctor. Sita shuts down while Stanley emigrates followed (to his later regret) by Sita and Alice. Sita has come out of her mourning due to an affair with a Tamil Bee shelters after he is shot by the police but the Tamil is then killed while she is sailing to England thus crushing her hopes again. Eventually Stanley leaves Sita due to her obsession with the dead baby and his own increasing attraction to the Tamil cause. Meanwhile Bee is eventually murdered for his efforts in sheltering Tamils and increasingly political artwork. The two parts of the family and friends – in Sri Lanka and the UK lose touch almost completely. Alice develops artistic skills and a crush on her art teacher but then finding he is engaged to another teacher rapidly agrees to marriage (which quickly leads to a child) with an Englishman who over time leaves her due to her foreignness. As an adult and increasingly recognised sculpture she meets a married doctor and not long after they begin an affair she is killed in the 7/7 bombings.
Overall an enjoyable but not brilliant book – at first the book was very unconvincing and uninvolving, becoming more interesting as Alice and her mother emigrate and then a little implausible and conventional in Alice’s adulthood.
Themes include: art and sculpture as a way of capturing loss and feeling; the contrast between the violence of paradise and the peace and prosperity of dreary England; post 9-11 leading to terrorism suddenly coming to the West (albeit seeming to ignore the IRA); dispossession and diaspora (its effect on the emigrants and on the ; the spiral of racial tension, hatred and violence in Sri Lanka including the increasing erosion of personal liberty in the Singhalese community; how loss can lead to a lack of any feeling or emotion; a grandfather placing all his hopes and dreams in his grandchildren.
Overall an enjoyable but not brilliant book – at first the book was very unconvincing and uninvolving, becoming more interesting as Alice and her mother emigrate and then a little implausible and conventional in Alice’s adulthood.
Themes include: art and sculpture as a way of capturing loss and feeling; the contrast between the violence of paradise and the peace and prosperity of dreary England; post 9-11 leading to terrorism suddenly coming to the West (albeit seeming to ignore the IRA); dispossession and diaspora (its effect on the emigrants and on the ; the spiral of racial tension, hatred and violence in Sri Lanka including the increasing erosion of personal liberty in the Singhalese community; how loss can lead to a lack of any feeling or emotion; a grandfather placing all his hopes and dreams in his grandchildren.
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