Elephant Complex: Travels in Sri Lanka

Award-winning British travel writer and lawyer Gimlette (Wild Coast; Panther Soup) explores all the regions of the island nation of Sri Lanka, moving between the present and the past (Sri Lanka was consecutively colonized by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British from the 16th century on). The narrative is peppered with history, legends, descriptions of scenery, and encounters with Sri Lankans. There are fascinating tidbits: in one episode elephants are kept away from a treehouse by the singing of elephant-scaring songs. A number of topics are covered: the cities of the reservoir kings of ancient Sri Lanka; the kingdom of Kandy, where for "…222 years the Sinhalese kings kept the Europeans at bay"; the Tamils of the tea plantations; the aboriginal community of Veddahs; and the tsunami of 2004. The most harrowing account is of the civil war that raged from 1983 to 2009, and its grim aftermath. Titles for further reading are listed. Gimlette's prose is vivid, engaging, and sprinkled with humor; his perspective is that of the outsider.