Long Watch

War, Captivity and Return in Sri Lanka

Galappatti Sunila

For sale in CIS only!

"A Long Watch" is the story of the highest-ranking prisoner detained by the Tamil Tigers during Sri Lanka's civil war, a naval officer pulled from a dark ocean after a battle at sea. For eight years Commodore Boyagoda lived at close quarters with his declared enemy, his imprisonment punctuated by high-level talks about his fate, but also by extended conversations with his jailers and scratch games of cricket played in jungle clearings. Throughout, he observed his captors and fellow prisoners acutely, and with discreet empathy for the lives of others undone by war.

A memoir retold in Ajith Boyagoda's temperate voice, his is an unblinking relation of experiences difficult, moving and ironic. From going to sea, to war, imprisonment and eventual homecoming, he accepted successive realities as ordinary, in order to survive them.

His book is a rare first-hand account of a close encounter between the protagonists of Sri Lanka's civil war. Refusing sensationalism," A Long Watch" offers a statement of human complexity amid the polarised narratives of a brutal conflict.

About the Author

Sunila Galappatti has worked with other people to tell their stories, as a dramaturg, theatre director and editor. She started her working life at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Live Theatre, Newcastle and is a former Director of the Galle Literary Festival. She has recently been a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at Brown University; reflecting on processes carried out in different parts of the world to curate public histories. She lives in Sri Lanka.

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