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A Passage North

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About this listen

It begins with a message: a telephone call informing Krishan that his grandmother's former care-giver, Rani, has died in unexpected circumstances, at the bottom of a well in her village in the north, her neck broken by the fall. The news arrives on the heels of an email from Anjum, an activist he fell in love with four years earlier while living in Delhi, bringing with it the stirring of distant memories and desires. As Krishan makes the long journey by train from Colombo into the war-torn Northern Province for the funeral, so begins a passage into the soul of an island devastated by violence.

Written with precision and grace, A Passage North is a poignant memorial for the missing and the dead, and a luminous meditation on time, consciousness and the lasting imprint of the connections we make with others.

©2021 Anuk Arudpragasam (P)2021 W F Howes Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction South Asian Creators World Literature

Critic reviews

“Mesmerizing, political, intimate, unafraid - this is a superb novel.” (Sunjeev Sahota, author of the Booker shortlisted The Year of the Runaways)
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Loved this. The narrator has the most beautiful voice and way of narrating and the writing is exquisite.

Extraordinary & Beautiful

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Too overly explained for my taste, and too much unecessary detail and inner thought narration.

Not for me

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A wonderfully written, wonderfully read experience. Reflective on time and learning, it is so much more than a story. Beautiful prose aligned with the experience of learning - and yearning. Fabulous.

Time and Thought

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There is a story: you can find it in the summary but it’s there to carry a variety of balanced’ sensitive and mature reflections, everywhere beautifully written and worthy of its consideration for the Booker.
As an audiobook it works a treat.

Thoughtful, balanced and mature.

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The lack of dialogue and often over description. Felt like a read of incessant info dumping.
The narration is ok, as is the story. But I had to listen at 1.5 speed In the end, just to finish it.

Couldn’t help feeling like I was in an info dump loop

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