Tamils and the Sri Lankan Government Face Off in WAS I A STRANGER IN MY HOMELAND?

The struggle for freedom and peace among the Tamils in Sri Lanka has been quite bloody and plagued with many controversies. BBC News South Asia posted news articles online revealing the British TV station Channel 4's active support for Tamils over the past years in finding out the truth, while most of the other media have been biased and have been siding up with the Sri Lankan government. Young author, Malavi Sivakanesan, of Tamil descent, reflects upon this political turmoil in her newly published memoir, titled Was I a Stranger in My Homeland?

At the crucial moment of the civil war in Sri Lanka, early 2009, Sivakanesan did everything in her power to win back her country, Tamil Eelam, from the Sri Lankan Government. She went to demonstrations every single day and wrote letter after letter to politicians in Norway. At one point, after the May 18, 2009, all the youth who had worked to win back their country got depressed and hurt, including Sivakanesan. She felt that if worldwide demonstrations and emotional letters do not work, she had to try something else. Hence, she published her book.

Sivakanesan's memoir shares her experiences in her "homeland" at the age of eight while visiting Tamil Eelam in 2003. She reveals the truth of what happened in Sri Lanka through the eyes of a young child abroad. This is no political book for political propaganda. It is simply one young lady's identity, culture differences, and how it is to be a Tamil inside the four walls at home but an integrated Norwegian the minute she steps out.

Despite her youthful age and philosophy of life, Sivakanesan has profoundly shared her thoughts and feelings of growing up in a complex multicultural society as well as her response to cultural and ethnic diversity in Was I a Stranger in My Homeland? This work is a dramatic eye-opener about identity crisis and the real plight of Sivakanesan's own people who struggle to preserve their own culture amidst the Tamil diaspora.

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About the Author
Malavi Sivakanesan, daughter of ethnic Tamil parents, was born on the 5th of November 1995 in Tromsø, Norway, to a dentist father and Indian classical teacher mother. She started singing, dancing and playing a type of sitar at the age of 4. She has lived in North Norway, moving to Bergen at the age of 6. She studied at the International School of Bergen for more than eight years. In eighth grade, she won the European Council of International Schools Award. In ninth grade, she finished her diploma in Indian classical dancing, singing and veena (a type of sitar) then started teaching. Swimming has been her passion since she was very young. Now she is studying in her last year of high school and next year she would like to enter medicine and become a doctor.

Was I a Stranger in My Homeland? * by Malavi Sivakanesan
Has One Two Lives?
Publication Date: October 1, 2013
Picture Book; £27.99; 108 pages; 978-1-4836-8214-3
Picture Book Hardcover; £37.99; 108 pages; 978-1-4836-8215-0
Ebook; £3.99; 978-1-4836-8216-7

Members of the media who wish to review this book may request a complimentary paperback copy by contacting the publisher at 800-056-3182. To purchase copies of the book for resale, please fax Xlibris at 44-203-006-8880 or call 800-056-3182.

For more information, contact Xlibris at 800-056-3182 or on the web at http://www.XlibrisPublishing.co.uk.

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