Shirani Rajapakse Book order

She tried to recall the day he walked out, the day she last saw him and the exact moment she heard his voice on the phone assuring her all was well. And then no more. What happened? What went wrong? She would never know. There was no one left to respond, and those that were there didn’t dare speak up as the reasons for what took place didn’t make sense so they kept quiet and hoped in time she would understand. Conflict raged in the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka for close to three decades. People from all walks of life, ethnic, religious and age groups suffered. The Tamil terrorists disrupted life and property all over the country for three decades, while for a few years in the late 1980s a Marxist guerilla group caused chaos, but this was soon wiped out. The Tamil terrorists however took much longer. These poems are a reflection of the time. They take on voices of people from across the divide and speak of the incredible loss the people all suffered.

A newly married woman burns to death. A mother is forced to kill her infant daughter. A young woman with a promising future becomes a slave to a holy man. A recently widowed woman is left on the bank of a river to die. I Exist. Therefore I Am takes you on a journey into the world of women and the trauma they face for simply being. Moving yet also disturbing, these nine stories set in India are about internal struggles, desperation, vulnerability as well as yearning for something better. It is about secrets, words that cannot be spoken, social restrictions and smiles that don't quite reach the eyes. In story after story, Rajapakse portrays the terrible treatment towards women as a result of religious, cultural and tribal taboos placed on them, and the suffering at the hands not just of society but of their own kind. This is fiction that is created for readers that aren't afraid to question society and its beliefs and tear open the wounds to heal the soul. They describe what it means to be women, the helplessness they are confronted with and the unending hope they have for a better future. Will these women's sacrifices make a difference or will they have been in vain?

Breaking News is a collection of nine short stories. Set in Sri Lanka four of the stories are about the effects of terrorism on the lives of the poeple from all walks of life and ethnic divide while one story is set in the late 1980s at the height of Marxist violence. The balance are stories about the humorous side of life.