A story of age and youth, loss and survival that builds into a magisterial reckoning with mortality from a prize-winning Sri Lankan Tamil author

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2021 'Mesmerizing, political, intimate, unafraid - this is a superb novel... that pays such close, intelligent attention to the world we all live in' Sunjeev Sahota, author of the Booker shortlisted The Year of the Runaways It begins with a message: a telephone call informing Krishan that his grandmother's former caregiver has died. As Krishan makes the long journey by train from the Sri Lankan capital into the war-torn Northern Province for the funeral, so he travels into the soul of a country devastated by civil war. A Passage North is a poignant memorial to the dead and an exploration of the unattainable distances between who we are and what we seek. 'Its world is the deeply-layered, rich interior of its protagonist's mind but also contemporary Sri Lanka itself, war-scarred, traumatized ... [It] connects Arudpragasam to the great novelists of the past' Colm Tóibín, bestselling author of Brooklyn

"Mesmerizing, political, intimate, unafraid - this is a superb novel, a novel that pays such close, intelligent attention to the world we all live in" - Sunjeev Sahota

"It can take just two novels to establish a writer as one of the most individual minds of their generation... With his new novel, a revelatory exploration of the aftermath of war, Arudpragasam cements his reputation... [An] extraordinary and often illuminating novel" - Financial Times

"A novel of philosophic suspense, one whose reader shivers in anticipation not of what will happen next but of where the next thought will lead... A luminously intelligent, psychologically intricate novel-slow in always rewarding ways" - Kirkus

"A young man ruminates about Sri Lankan history and his own life in the introspective latest from Arudpragasam...Readers who enjoy contemplative, Sebaldian narratives will appreciate this" - Publishers Weekly

"The author of The Story of a Brief Marriage casts a spell in his sumptuous new novel... reminiscent of Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost" - Oprah Daily's Best Books of July

"Profound... hypnotic... Arudpragasam explores the desire for independence that enflamed the decades-long civil war, the violence that ensued and the emotional scars that refuse to heal" - Observer

"A disquieting and contemplative book that seeks to comprehend the incomprehensible... With considered thoughts on everything from smoking to meditation, life and death, [Arudpragasam''s] new novel is a treasure trove of insight and wisdom, a reminder of "how large and unknown the world was, how much it seemed to contain"" - Irish Times

"A beautiful, meditative book... so moving" - Literary Friction

"It is an incredibly introspective work. Through the particularities of Krishan's experience and inner life, Arudpragasam seamlessly unfurls ruminations on intimacy, trauma, and the passage of time" - Paris Review

"Arudpragasam is a patient and meticulous observer." - Guardian

"Anuk Arudpragasam's mesmerising second novel is a haunting portrait of a young man indelibly marked by his nation's troubled history" - Daily Mail