Sri Lanka’s three-decade-long civil war tore communities
apart, instilling deep fear and hate. In 2009, the Sri Lankan
army finally defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers guerrillas
in a fierce battle that swept up about 3,00,000 civilians and
killed more than 40,000. Resilient, displaced millions still dared
to hope. But the next five years changed everything.
Rohini Mohan’s searing account of three lives caught up in the devastation looks beyond
the end of a war, to reveal the creeping everyday violence that comes after. When citybred
Sarva is dragged off the streets by state forces, his middle-aged mother, Indra,
searches for him through the labyrinthine Sri Lankan bureaucracy. Meanwhile, Mugil, once
a child soldier, deserts the Tigers in the thick of war to protect her family. Having survived,
they struggle to live. Sarva flees the country, losing his way – and almost his life – in a
harrowing journey to foreign shores. Mugil stays, breaking out of the refugee camp to
rebuild family, a home, an ordinary life in the village she left as a girl. Indra watches a
triumphant Sri Lankan state fritter away its chance at peace. In the tumultuous world they
inhabit, desires, plans and people, can be snatched away in a moment.
The Seasons of Trouble is startling and brutal, yet a beautifully written debut from a prizewinning
journalist. A classic piece of reportage on the effects of conflict on people.
About The Author:
Rohini Mohan is a political journalist
based in Bangalore, India. She has
won prestigious recognition for her
work, including the Charles Wallace
Fellowship 2013, London; the ICRC
Humanitarian Reporting Award 2012,
New Delhi; the Sanskriti-Prabha Dutt
Fellowship 2012, New Delhi; and the
South Asian Journalists’ Association
award 2011, New York. She has written
for Tehelka, The Caravan, Outlook, The
Hindu, and The New York Times. She
has an MA in Political Journalism from
Columbia University, New York.
