AN EYE FOR AN EYE

Oh Latifa, please forgive me I became the death of you Set in an unnamed desert kingdom in the present-day Middle East, An Eye for an Eye is a measured yet passionate depiction of a society torn between Islamic fundamentalism and western libertarianism. Returning to the characters he introduced in his debut novel, Mirage, Chandraratna portrays Sayeed’s struggle to recover from the loss of his wife, Latifa, who was sentenced to death by stoning after a court committed her for adultery. Sayeed is in hospital after suffering a mental breakdown and having been discovered unconscious and alone in the heat of the desert. Once discharged from hospital, he must choose whether to forgive the authorities that killed Latifa, or, encouraged by his fundamentalist childhood friend, Yasser, to exact vengeance. Sayeed’s kingdom stands at a moral crossroads—trapped between the rampant avarice and moral disregard of capitalism and the implacable, unforgiving morality of Islamic fundamentalism. Faced with these two equally unholy extremes, Sayeed’s final choice is all the more remarkable. With the classic simplicity that made Mirage so unique, Bandula Chandraratna reignites a timeless tale of innocence and evil against a savage landscape.