Devakanthan (Bala Kumarasamy) is a Tamil writer and art critic who “was exiled by the war in Sri Lanka in the early 1980s” and settled in Canada via India. He lives in Toronto and writes in Tamil. A quintet of novels received the Tamil Literary Garden’s Best Novel Award (2014) for the work as a whole. The individual novels are being translated into English and published by Mawenzi House with the series title Prison of Dreams. The first of the quintet is His Sacred Army. The original version won the Government of Tamil Nadu Novel of the Year Award (1998).
Fiction
His Sacred Army
Translated from Tamil by Nedra Rodrigo.
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2021.
Prison of Dreams ; bk 1
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
His Sacred Army is the first volume of the quintet, Prison of Dreams, depicting the growth of the Tamil armed struggle in 1980s Sri Lanka. The five novels together describe the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic conflict, the hard choices faced by the minority communities subject to pogroms and oppressive laws, and the sufferings and exiles of simple villagers as the conflict finally flares up into a full-fledged and bloody civil war.
His Sacred Army centres around the life of Rajalakshmi, a young woman in the small island community of Nainativu, off the coast of Sri Lanka. Rajalakshmi’s simple ambition of employment to support her widowed mother and struggling family is thwarted by malicious gossip, for which the solution is to marry her childhood friend Suthan. As the ethnic conflict heats up, Suthan faces the dilemma of whether to follow his father’s political path of constitutional reform and nonviolence or to join the growing separatist movement. He goes into exile in India, and Rajalakshmi is faced with the choice whether to follow him.
Fiction
Liquid Fire
Translated from Tamil by Nedra Rodrigo.
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2024.
Prison of Dreams ; bk. 3
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
This third novel in Devakanthan’s quintet, Prison of Dreams, depicts the lives of the rural Tamil population of Sri Lanka during its tragic civil war (1983-2009). It was a dark time of repression and exile, a time of utter despair, in which innocence turned to ruin, a way of life disappeared. As the author writes,
” . . . stabbings, deaths, and shattered limbs were . . . a part of their story. Death swooped in, randomly snatched people up, old, young, or newborn. The bombs exploded like thunder, stopping many hearts . . . when wood and wheelchairs substituted for legs. Artificial hands were not much use. It was a time of deprivation, and survival was everything. Our earth / our days / when none of it / is for us / a time like this / could not come again . . . such torment. So Yasothara / you / live in this moment . . . “
Fiction
A New Testament
Translated from Tamil by Nedra Rodrigo.
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2024.
Prison of Dreams ; bk. 5
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
The final and shortest novel of the quintet is a coda that brings together several of its displaced characters in unexpected ways. The noble monk Sankarananda Thero meets a tragic end, but he remains an inspiration for Thiravi, who finds the direction he has been searching for for years. Suthan reunites with his mother and sister briefly in India, but their relationships remain strained. Thiyagu’s mind begins to clear as he takes on new responsibilities and returns to Nainativu with an orphaned child. As her friends and family disperse, Raji learns of a tragedy that finally forces her to admit the depth of her feelings.
Fiction
A Time of Questions
Translated from Tamil by Nedra Rodrigo.
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2021.
Prison of Dreams ; bk. 2
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
A Time of Questions explores the choices faced by Tamil youth in the face of a growing Sinhala Buddhist nationalism. Rajalakshmi—married in all but sacred ritual to Suthan—faces two options: to remain in her beloved little island, Nainativu, or to seek refuge in India and join Suthan. At the same time, the insurgent movement for Tamil separation begins to fracture through internal differences and Suthan makes a decision that irrevocably alters his and Rajalakshmi’s fates.
Fiction
A World in Ruins
Translated from Tamil by Nedra Rodrigo.
Toronto: Mawenzi House, 2024.
Prison of Dreams ; bk. 4
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
Set in the years between 1995 and 2000, the fourth novel in the quintet follows the lives of the families scattered from the island of Nainativu across the world. Arasi redoubles her efforts to find the forcibly disappeared poet Rakini, and finds allies in the feminist groups advocating for human rights in Sri Lanka. In France, Suthan contributes to the formation of an international network of Tamils mobilizing for the struggle back home, even as his relationship with Sheila deteriorates and his past threatens to catch up with him. Raji continues her work caring for the refugees in the camp in India and eventually reconciles with her mother, who begins to see her in a new light. Rajendran undergoes a change of heart as he distances himself from Suthan and starts his own family. Yogesh becomes an indispensable boatman for the rebels, navigating his way between India and Sri Lanka on several missions.
Links
Publisher Mawenzi House