Heaven's Edge

Romesh Gunesekera's dazzling first novel, Reef, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and The Guardian First Fiction Award. Now he delivers a spellbinding modern odyssey that The Daily Telegraph praises as "powerful -- dense, cadenced, the images perfectly observed."In search of a dream, Marc leaves London for the land of his patrimony and family secrets -- an unnamed island (based on the author's native Sri Lanka) once said to be near the edge of heaven but now despoiled by war. There he falls in love with Uva, an eco-warrior whose covert farming has made her the target of deadly kidnappers. Marc searches for her among the mystical land's underground dens of iniquity and ghostly colonial mansions. As gun battles and foot races erupt, he must confront the question his ancestors handled in such different ways: Is violence ever a proper path to freedom? He will discover the answer only once he is reunited with Uva in a utopia that offers a happiness he would defend with his life.