Recalling Karen Roberts’s Novel “JULY”
Source:Thuppahis
A GIFT of a book from Dr. Hilali Noordeen of Britain and Galle led from one event to another: the “another” being the felicitation that he provided to authoress Karen Roberts in the course of the Galle Literary Festival in early 2004. KAREN, alas, passed away prematurely in 2018: so this is an occasion for TPS to pay homage to her memory in several ways — one being a focus on her novel July published in 2002. In doing so, let me stress that I recall some of the tales — that is, her “evidence” — she provided about her experiences in witnesssing the horrendous assaults on SL Tamils and/or their establishments meted out by a variety of hands during that fateful week in late July 1983.** After leaving her work place on the first day of the attacks, she had to walk back from Kollupitiya to Dehwela to reach her home and she provided me with several vivid details of the scenes she witnessed.
