Traitor

by Shobasakthi, Anushiya Ramaswamy (Translator)

‘As I live my days locked up in a wretched prison in this frozen country, I start to write the story of my beloved child, Nirami. The story begins with the birth of God.’
Nirami, Nesakumaran’s fourteen-year-old daughter, is awaiting her abortion in the hospital room of an unnamed European city; she refuses to name her rapist.
Nesakumaran’s narrative begins in 1980s Sri Lanka when, radicalized by the dream of Tamil Eelam, he abandons his seminary studies. A bungling terrorist, botching up one task after another, Nesakumaran is in no way a genuine threat. But once he has entered the system as a suspect he can never find a way out of the maze of interrogation chambers, army camps and regional prisons. What follows is a surreal account of torture, which culminates in the extremely brutal massacre of Tamil prisoners by the Sinhalese inmates in the Welikade prison in 1983, and also, the revelation of Nirami’s rapist.
A stark rhetoric of torture, pain and black humour, Traitor, through its pathologically damaged protagonist, gives voice to the testimonies of millions of refugees of a war-ravaged land.

232 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Born as Antonythasan Jesuthasan.

Shobasakthi lives in France. He is a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee and a former LTTE child-soldier. He has published two novels, a collection of short stories, three plays and many essays. His first novel, translated in English as Gorilla, was published to immense acclaim. For the last twenty years, he has worked as a dishwasher, cook, supermarket shelver, room boy, construction worker and street sweeper, among other things. He blogs at www.satiyakadatasi.com.

Reviews

[Naren]

நான் வாசிக்கும் முதல் ஈழ எழுத்து, பெரும்பாலும் புலம்பெயர் மக்களின் சிறுகதைகளாகவும், எஞ்சியவை போர் சூழல் கதைகளாகவும் இருந்தது... ஆரம்பத்தில் வாசிக்க கடினமாக இருந்தாலும் போக போக மொழி பிடிபட்டது,
ஷோபாசக்தியின் எழுத்துக்களை தொடர்ந்து வாசிக்கப்பட வேண்டுமென நினைக்கிறேன்

[Hemalatha Venkataraman · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great deal of the book came through to me only after I finished reading the afterword which was well expended throwing good light on the socio-political scenario present in the country. It's a pretty deep subject that needs much introspection. However, I believe it didn't get through to me mainly because it's translated from Tamil to English and the 'mann-vasanai' (for the lack of a better word in English, I resort to using Tamil) or the essence is lost on me. Perhaps a second or third reading would shed more trenchant understanding. I guess it's best read in Tamil though.

[Shruti · Rating 4 out of 5]

harrowing, but dazzling. and an excellent afterword by the translator helps put it all together in socio-political/ chronological context.

[Alex Linschoten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Traitor is a novel about torture set in Sri Lanka. Shobasakthi is a former child soldier himself and he channels the stories of decades past -- torture in prisons, ethnic violence -- in this fictional account. What could easily have become a simplistic good vs evil account is complicated by the fact that the main character is so flawed. He's presented almost as a tragic-comic anti-hero, someone who passes through a number of events but lacks agency aside from his ability to tell his own story. This book made me think a good deal about the relationship between the torturer and his subjects, too, and to my mind this made the book worth reading.

[Ravi Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not like it so much but it not so bad either.