What do you think?
Heaven's Edge
Romesh Gunesekera's dazzling first novel, Reef, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and The Guardian First Fiction Award. Now he delivers a spellbinding modern odyssey that The Daily Telegraph praises as "powerful-dense, cadenced, the images perfectly observed."
In search of a dream, Marc leaves London for the land of his patrimony and family secrets -- an unnamed island (based on the author's native Sri Lanka) once said to be near the edge of heaven but now despoiled by war. There he falls in love with Uva, an eco-warrior whose covert farming has made her the target of deadly kidnappers. Marc searches for her among the mystical land's underground dens of iniquity and ghostly colonial mansions. As gun battles and foot races erupt, he must confront the question his ancestors handled in such different ways: Is violence ever a proper path to freedom? He will discover the answer only once he is reunited with Uva in a utopia that offers a happiness he would defend with his life.
In search of a dream, Marc leaves London for the land of his patrimony and family secrets -- an unnamed island (based on the author's native Sri Lanka) once said to be near the edge of heaven but now despoiled by war. There he falls in love with Uva, an eco-warrior whose covert farming has made her the target of deadly kidnappers. Marc searches for her among the mystical land's underground dens of iniquity and ghostly colonial mansions. As gun battles and foot races erupt, he must confront the question his ancestors handled in such different ways: Is violence ever a proper path to freedom? He will discover the answer only once he is reunited with Uva in a utopia that offers a happiness he would defend with his life.
Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Romesh Gunesekera
22 books202 followersRomesh Gunesekera was born in Sri Lanka where he spent his early years. Before coming to Britain he also lived in the Philippines. He now lives in London. In 2010 he was writer in residence at Somerset House.
His first novel, Reef, was published in 1994 and was short-listed as a finalist for the Booker Prize, as well as for the Guardian Fiction Prize. In the USA he was nominated for a New Voice Award.
Before that, in 1992 his first collection of stories, Monkfish Moon, was one of the first titles in Granta’s venture into book publishing. It was shortlisted for several prizes and named a New York Times Notable Book for 1993.
In 1998, he received the inaugural BBC Asia Award for Achievement in Writing & Literature for his novel The Sandglass. The previous year he was awarded one of the prestigious Italian literary prizes: the Premio Mondello Five Continents. In 1995 he won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award in Britain.
His third novel, Heaven’s Edge, a dystopian novel set in the near future was published by Bloomsbury in 2002.
Four years later Bloomsbury also published The Match hailed as one of the first novels in which cricket was celebrated, and a forerunner of the many cricket-related novels that have followed.
In 2008, a collection of his Madeira stories were published in a bilingual edition to celebrate its 500th anniversary of the founding of Funchal in Madeira.
His most recent novel is Suncatcher. His other books are Noontide Toll, a collection of linked stories, and the historical novel The Prisoner of Paradise.
Romesh Gunesekera is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has also received a National Honour in Sri Lanka.
He has been a judge for a number of literary prizes including the Caine Prize for African Writing, the David Cohen Literature Prize and the Forward Prize for Poetry. He has been a Guest Director at the Cheltenham Festival, an Associate Tutor at Goldsmiths College and on the Board of the Arvon Foundation for writing.
His first novel, Reef, was published in 1994 and was short-listed as a finalist for the Booker Prize, as well as for the Guardian Fiction Prize. In the USA he was nominated for a New Voice Award.
Before that, in 1992 his first collection of stories, Monkfish Moon, was one of the first titles in Granta’s venture into book publishing. It was shortlisted for several prizes and named a New York Times Notable Book for 1993.
In 1998, he received the inaugural BBC Asia Award for Achievement in Writing & Literature for his novel The Sandglass. The previous year he was awarded one of the prestigious Italian literary prizes: the Premio Mondello Five Continents. In 1995 he won the Yorkshire Post Best First Work Award in Britain.
His third novel, Heaven’s Edge, a dystopian novel set in the near future was published by Bloomsbury in 2002.
Four years later Bloomsbury also published The Match hailed as one of the first novels in which cricket was celebrated, and a forerunner of the many cricket-related novels that have followed.
In 2008, a collection of his Madeira stories were published in a bilingual edition to celebrate its 500th anniversary of the founding of Funchal in Madeira.
His most recent novel is Suncatcher. His other books are Noontide Toll, a collection of linked stories, and the historical novel The Prisoner of Paradise.
Romesh Gunesekera is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has also received a National Honour in Sri Lanka.
He has been a judge for a number of literary prizes including the Caine Prize for African Writing, the David Cohen Literature Prize and the Forward Prize for Poetry. He has been a Guest Director at the Cheltenham Festival, an Associate Tutor at Goldsmiths College and on the Board of the Arvon Foundation for writing.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 13, 2022
She laughed then, bursting a warm pod within her; a sound I had not heard for longer than I could remember, a sound from the edge of heaven. I felt that we were, at last, where we belonged. Among trees mute yet more perfect than us; their roots nourished by the whole of the earth’s past, and harbouring the future already in their buds. And that in time there might even be children from the forest who would come to us and grant our lives too a sense of perpetuity.
Legend has it that Adam and Eve were exiled to that place to become lovers, on that small island on the heaven's edge. From this garden of Eden, Marc's grandfather escaped, away from violence and war. There, Marc's father returned, as a military pilot, to liberate paradise. Marc, now an adult who carries the burden of the sadness in which he's lost, has no one left. Thus he decides to come to the place where his grandfather was born. To the island of whose beauty he heard stories, to the place where his father returned to die, by that same beauty.
Marc tries to find a meaning for his life, a part of heaven that his grandfather never ceased to speak of, somewhere where his father's bones were lost. He discovers a nation ravaged by war, governed by warlords. Where it is not wise to walk alone outside the boundaries of a hotel, but how will Marc find what he seeks if he does not go out. On the shore of the lake, he meets Uva, a young girl who liberates emerald doves.
With Uva meaning comes to his life. Passion and lust that consumes them both and for a moment it seems that he has found what he was looking for, until the soldiers appear and Uva disappears. After that, Marc wanders the ravaged island in search of Uva, where he encounters the contrast of beauty and suffering. Child soldiers, villages without men, dead bodies everywhere, colorful tropical birds. Peace and chaos.
Finally, the search ends. Uva is back. Different. The demons she was tormented by have grown stronger. Her dreams are filled with sobs that Marc listens to helplessly. Both bear secrets which they reveal themselves little by little. Marc and Uva become lovers exiled from paradise, in their own heavenly garden where they both begin healing through each other until the bitter end.
Gunesekera leads us through the novel with lyrical prose, especially through the parts with Marc and Uva, creating a striking dreamlike atmosphere. It's as if we're dreaming, sometimes a dream from which we don't want to wake up because we're in paradise, only to have it turn into a nightmare from which we want to escape. War and violence left a mark on all his characters, everyone lost someone. Everyone is looking for calm in the midst of the chaos that has engulfed them. Throughout the novel, Romesh emphasizes this relationship, the contrast between peace and violence, love and hate through Marc and his grandfather, his father, Uva and her friends. Although it seems abruptly cut off, the ending is exactly as it should be because the war does not ask. It only takes a moment to turn your whole life upside down.
Legend has it that Adam and Eve were exiled to that place to become lovers, on that small island on the heaven's edge. From this garden of Eden, Marc's grandfather escaped, away from violence and war. There, Marc's father returned, as a military pilot, to liberate paradise. Marc, now an adult who carries the burden of the sadness in which he's lost, has no one left. Thus he decides to come to the place where his grandfather was born. To the island of whose beauty he heard stories, to the place where his father returned to die, by that same beauty.
Marc tries to find a meaning for his life, a part of heaven that his grandfather never ceased to speak of, somewhere where his father's bones were lost. He discovers a nation ravaged by war, governed by warlords. Where it is not wise to walk alone outside the boundaries of a hotel, but how will Marc find what he seeks if he does not go out. On the shore of the lake, he meets Uva, a young girl who liberates emerald doves.
With Uva meaning comes to his life. Passion and lust that consumes them both and for a moment it seems that he has found what he was looking for, until the soldiers appear and Uva disappears. After that, Marc wanders the ravaged island in search of Uva, where he encounters the contrast of beauty and suffering. Child soldiers, villages without men, dead bodies everywhere, colorful tropical birds. Peace and chaos.
Finally, the search ends. Uva is back. Different. The demons she was tormented by have grown stronger. Her dreams are filled with sobs that Marc listens to helplessly. Both bear secrets which they reveal themselves little by little. Marc and Uva become lovers exiled from paradise, in their own heavenly garden where they both begin healing through each other until the bitter end.
Gunesekera leads us through the novel with lyrical prose, especially through the parts with Marc and Uva, creating a striking dreamlike atmosphere. It's as if we're dreaming, sometimes a dream from which we don't want to wake up because we're in paradise, only to have it turn into a nightmare from which we want to escape. War and violence left a mark on all his characters, everyone lost someone. Everyone is looking for calm in the midst of the chaos that has engulfed them. Throughout the novel, Romesh emphasizes this relationship, the contrast between peace and violence, love and hate through Marc and his grandfather, his father, Uva and her friends. Although it seems abruptly cut off, the ending is exactly as it should be because the war does not ask. It only takes a moment to turn your whole life upside down.
July 15, 2023
Turista distópico
Muchacho viaja a la isla tropical dónde nació su abuelo y después encontró la muerte su padre.
El abuelo, Eldon, huyó en su juventud de la isla. Posteriormente fue quien crio al muchacho. Es pacifista, cultiva rosas en su jardín y da sabios consejos. El padre, idealista y apasionado, volvió a la isla de sus ancestros para luchar por la paz.
El muchacho, ni uno ni otro: sin un objetivo claro, camina por los senderos de la isla, hasta que en un estanque: ¡Conoce muchacha! Bella, buena, inteligente, ecologista. Y nace el amor. ¿Qué puede salir mal? A partir de allí, todo. Persecución, huida y búsqueda protagonizada por el muchacho con sus dos improbables compañeros.
Hacía mucho que no leía una novela con tantos clichés, personajes estereotipados, a quienes las experiencias vividas nunca cambian; y como si fuera poco, salpicado y rematado por un discurso moralizante, banal, y no exento de contradicciones. Tanto, que hasta llegué a pensar que podría ser un experimento del autor, jugando con el lector.
Una historia con momentos entretenidos, que no alcanzan a compensar el espanto de una mala novela.
Después de mi lectura, he encontrado que se ha agregado la edición en castellano, que es la que leí, y realicé las correcciones correspondientes. Muchas gracias.
Sobre Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka es un país insular ubicado al sur de India (algunos la llaman la lágrima de India), con una larga y rica tradición cultural. Desde que obtuvo su independencia de Gran Bretaña no les ha ido muy bien: se han visto castigados hasta 2009, por una cruel guerra civil, entre el gobierno y los rebeldes de los Tigres de Liberación del Eelam Tamil. Y después de eso, por gobiernos no muy afortunados. Tal vez hubiera no hubiera sido una mala idea integrarse con India, aunque desconozco si era una alternativa.
Hubiera querido que esta novela me permitiera comprender un poco más, desde adentro, la realidad de este país. No fue el caso: su localización, distópica, es imprecisa; y aunque su autor nació en Colombo, capital de Sri Lanka, emigró siendo un niño. Ya me ocurrió, aunque con mucha más calidad literaria, con la novela El fantasma de Anil, de Michael Ondaatje. Habrá que esperar, entonces, a que traduzcan al castellano The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. (Actualización: Ya se ha publicado y la he leído).
Digresión innecesaria
La novela está presentada como una distopía, palabra que ya para todos significa, situada en un futuro no muy agradable. Imagino que ha sido creada como antónimo de utopía, que se entiende como lo opuesto, un futuro perfecto. El término utopía probablemente haya sido utilizado por primera vez en la famosa obra de Tomás Moro, y literalmente significa en ninguna parte (del griego u-topos), lo cual abriría la incógnita de que significa entonces, etimológicamente, distopía. Pero tampoco tiene mucha importancia.
Muchacho viaja a la isla tropical dónde nació su abuelo y después encontró la muerte su padre.
El abuelo, Eldon, huyó en su juventud de la isla. Posteriormente fue quien crio al muchacho. Es pacifista, cultiva rosas en su jardín y da sabios consejos. El padre, idealista y apasionado, volvió a la isla de sus ancestros para luchar por la paz.
El muchacho, ni uno ni otro: sin un objetivo claro, camina por los senderos de la isla, hasta que en un estanque: ¡Conoce muchacha! Bella, buena, inteligente, ecologista. Y nace el amor. ¿Qué puede salir mal? A partir de allí, todo. Persecución, huida y búsqueda protagonizada por el muchacho con sus dos improbables compañeros.
Hacía mucho que no leía una novela con tantos clichés, personajes estereotipados, a quienes las experiencias vividas nunca cambian; y como si fuera poco, salpicado y rematado por un discurso moralizante, banal, y no exento de contradicciones. Tanto, que hasta llegué a pensar que podría ser un experimento del autor, jugando con el lector.
Una historia con momentos entretenidos, que no alcanzan a compensar el espanto de una mala novela.
Después de mi lectura, he encontrado que se ha agregado la edición en castellano, que es la que leí, y realicé las correcciones correspondientes. Muchas gracias.
Sobre Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka es un país insular ubicado al sur de India (algunos la llaman la lágrima de India), con una larga y rica tradición cultural. Desde que obtuvo su independencia de Gran Bretaña no les ha ido muy bien: se han visto castigados hasta 2009, por una cruel guerra civil, entre el gobierno y los rebeldes de los Tigres de Liberación del Eelam Tamil. Y después de eso, por gobiernos no muy afortunados. Tal vez hubiera no hubiera sido una mala idea integrarse con India, aunque desconozco si era una alternativa.
Hubiera querido que esta novela me permitiera comprender un poco más, desde adentro, la realidad de este país. No fue el caso: su localización, distópica, es imprecisa; y aunque su autor nació en Colombo, capital de Sri Lanka, emigró siendo un niño. Ya me ocurrió, aunque con mucha más calidad literaria, con la novela El fantasma de Anil, de Michael Ondaatje. Habrá que esperar, entonces, a que traduzcan al castellano The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. (Actualización: Ya se ha publicado y la he leído).
Digresión innecesaria
La novela está presentada como una distopía, palabra que ya para todos significa, situada en un futuro no muy agradable. Imagino que ha sido creada como antónimo de utopía, que se entiende como lo opuesto, un futuro perfecto. El término utopía probablemente haya sido utilizado por primera vez en la famosa obra de Tomás Moro, y literalmente significa en ninguna parte (del griego u-topos), lo cual abriría la incógnita de que significa entonces, etimológicamente, distopía. Pero tampoco tiene mucha importancia.
January 18, 2023
This book was a weird like action story and war's effects on climate/ society but I hated the main character SO MUCH.
August 15, 2018
This is the first novel I've read from this Sri-Lanka author. The story is mostly set in Sri-Lanka. A young adult, born and raised in England from a Sri-Lanka immigrant family, is alone after the death of his grandparents who raised him while his father left his family, returned to Sri-Lanka to live there until his death. This young adult went also to Sri Lanka searching for his past to try to understand his father who left him and never return and at the same time hoping to find a future for himself. He found more than he bargained for:
- a landscape scene so beautiful, diverse, and unique. The author detailed and described beautifully the scenery making it look like heaven. It seemed surreal and to good to be true at times like a fantasy world.
- war torn country destroyed by army and warlord. The more beautiful the landscape, jungle, coastline is, the uglier the armed people are and the more death they cause.
- people not living , but trying to surviving at all cost by always moving around, hiding, and at times taking measures they would not take normally.
The story is well written. The characters well developed. The romance between the young adult and the local girl well told. The story is captivating from beginning to end without really knowing the final outcome.
The author did overdo it in describing the numerous beautiful sceneries making it look too good to believe. Furthermore, I can't relate to the leading character and his quest.
- a landscape scene so beautiful, diverse, and unique. The author detailed and described beautifully the scenery making it look like heaven. It seemed surreal and to good to be true at times like a fantasy world.
- war torn country destroyed by army and warlord. The more beautiful the landscape, jungle, coastline is, the uglier the armed people are and the more death they cause.
- people not living , but trying to surviving at all cost by always moving around, hiding, and at times taking measures they would not take normally.
The story is well written. The characters well developed. The romance between the young adult and the local girl well told. The story is captivating from beginning to end without really knowing the final outcome.
The author did overdo it in describing the numerous beautiful sceneries making it look too good to believe. Furthermore, I can't relate to the leading character and his quest.
January 18, 2019
"The art of killing cannot be our finest achievement"
I understand the struggle of Marc whose life is stuck in between his father Lee and his grandfather Eldon on war and killing. While living in a war-torn world, pacifism sounds like the way to go if we really want to save our planet for the future human civilizations. But... deep inside, I'm confused as much as Marc on when to fight for your life, when to fight for other lives by killing some others and when to run away or stay neutral doing nothing. Perhaps, we will never stop killing each other and there's no point worrying about it.
I understand the struggle of Marc whose life is stuck in between his father Lee and his grandfather Eldon on war and killing. While living in a war-torn world, pacifism sounds like the way to go if we really want to save our planet for the future human civilizations. But... deep inside, I'm confused as much as Marc on when to fight for your life, when to fight for other lives by killing some others and when to run away or stay neutral doing nothing. Perhaps, we will never stop killing each other and there's no point worrying about it.
February 23, 2022
Rather a bizarre read really. It seems to try to tell us something about life but I'm not sure it really succeeds. Interesting perspective on how Sri Lanka could have gone and the stupidity of power, and nice reminders of parts of the country I've seen, and tender about nature.
April 5, 2026
A story of a man who goes to another country to seek the truth of his family's past. Falls in love, gets caught up in a war. The last couple of paragraphs seal his fate. Not a bad book all told.
July 28, 2013
Having read Gunesekera's first novel, 'Reef', which made the long list for the Man Booker Prize in 1994, so much that I booked a week's stay at an Arvon writing retreat to study writing with him. It was there that I bought a copy of 'Heaven's Edge', handing over my payment to the author in person.
'Heaven's Edge' has many of the hallmarks that made 'Reef' so good: Gunesekera's kind, lyrical voice, always gentle, always thoughtful (very much like the man's speaking voice); beautiful descriptions of a landscape seen through a returning migrant's eyes. But in the end I found his attempt to write a futuristic novel unconvincing, as if he was reaching beyond his own imaginative limits, such novelties as there were seemed clunkily contrived for the convenience of the writer to help him out of a plot cul-de-sac of his own making. All in all, a disappointment: I really wanted to enjoy this as much as 'Reef'.
'Heaven's Edge' has many of the hallmarks that made 'Reef' so good: Gunesekera's kind, lyrical voice, always gentle, always thoughtful (very much like the man's speaking voice); beautiful descriptions of a landscape seen through a returning migrant's eyes. But in the end I found his attempt to write a futuristic novel unconvincing, as if he was reaching beyond his own imaginative limits, such novelties as there were seemed clunkily contrived for the convenience of the writer to help him out of a plot cul-de-sac of his own making. All in all, a disappointment: I really wanted to enjoy this as much as 'Reef'.
December 14, 2017
Having read Reef, I tried a second novel from Gunesekera, but it left me bewildered: I have spent some time in Sri Lanka and got to know people there, and so couldn't resist comparing it to the country and culture. However, this novel is set in a fictional nation based on a futuristic Sri Lanka, post civil war, and the tone and direction of the novel left me confused and disturbed. I could not relate to the key character in any way, and the story and characterisation did not jell for me at all.
February 13, 2012
I know I should find this fabulous, and I guess I do, but it also left me feeling unsettled and disturbed. I didn't enjoy the book. It was odd. I could see the brilliance in the plot, in the writing, but the atmosphere, the characters, they just felt somehow too contrived. Maybe it was my mood because I usually think Gunesekera is a master of his craft.
Read
June 24, 2007This is one of the most visual books I've read - beautiful and disturbing. The language is so well-crafted, you feel as if you're watching good cinema. The ending made me literally gasp - and then, cry,
Read
April 20, 2013Great descriptions and images
April 1, 2008
Very vivid, and extremely well written, but somehow the plot failed to impress me....
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews