Book Review: Safe Haven by Shankari Chandran – By Varan Karunakaran
Source : Qld Sri Lankan Newsletter – Dæhæna – August 2024
Serafina (Fina), a Tamil nun who was seeking asylum, arrived in Australia together with other Tamil people on the boat who survived a near death experience and rescued by a Norwegian ship.
Arriving in Australia seeking asylum, equally, Fina dedicated herself to aiding the refugees who were held in Port Camden (fictional), a remote island outpost. The tale swings between outlooks of Fina and Lakshmi (Lucky), a special investigator and an Australian-Tamil origin, posted to the detention centre. The accounts reflect a story of grief, trauma and the interconnectedness of fates.
This included a sharp shock of pain, an immediate emotional response with the goal of further provoking actions.
Lucky’s probes and the revelation of Fina’s own secret past, the novel reads more like a crime procedural – no less compelling, but perhaps driving without fury. Likewise, it also contained devastating memories of Fina’s traumatic escape from Sri Lanka, and her combated barriers to freedom and safety. After Fina spoke out for those being detained, the mystery was tied to Fina’s fate where she became the focus of a media storm that led to her arrest, and the threat of deportation. When a security officer died under suspicious circumstances, Lucky uncovered the truth.
The author brought the story to life through the warmth and vibrancy of its characters and her ability to meet such complexity. In one scene, Fina recalls her learning to swim in the community pool, slowly overcoming her fear of being back in water. This deeply harrowing narrative often explores what it means to be a refugee subjected to Australia’s draconian legislation and processes, and the significance of the protests and struggles against those processes by many Australians. Over time, Fina settled into a life within a community of like-minded people, finding a new family, far from her original home.
‘Safe Haven’ is a lively fiction about the Sri Lankan civil war, human sufferings, and Australia’s listless actions with the treatment of asylum seekers, including its use of private offshore-detention facilities. It is also a character study that dwells upon the many possible meanings of friendly, familial, and romantic love. In addition, it contains references to Ramayana, meditations on faith and religion, trauma and death, courage and guilt, curry pies, and much more. There are minor flashes of humour in this novel with a quite number of communications and use of transliterated Tamil words.
Varan Karunakaran
