Sri Lanka

The thirty-year-long civil war in Sri Lanka which ended in 2009 shook the island-nation. Now there is peace, rapid development - and a new government. But questions remain. What do Tamils and Sinhalese feel about their new country? What are their dreams for the future?Sri Lanka: The New Country is insightful and unusual reportage from the dispassionate eye of a foreign correspondent who covered the bloody conflict for two decades. It is anecdotal narrative at its best: about ordinary Sri Lankans, former Tamil Tigers, meeting LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran, princes, 'secular clergymen', army generals, Tamil Buddhists, Sinhalese Tamils, politicians and sailors wary of ghosts. As the writer traverses Sri Lanka's formerly embattled north and east, internationally stereotypes about the nation are challenged. The book is a tribute to a wonderful people, as they pick up the pieces of their fragmented national identity and get on with building a new country.

Padma Rao Sundarji is a veteran foreign correspondent based in New Delhi. As the long-standing South Asia bureau chief of German news magazine Der Spiegel till 2012, the Sri Lankan civil war was an intensive part of her beat. She has also worked for ARD German Television Network, ZDF, Geo and Outlook in New York, Deutsche Welle in Germany and NDR German Radio, Deutsche Presse Agentur, The Pioneer and as special correspondent for McClatchyDC in India. Her work has appeared in syndicate in the New York Times and the Herald Tribune and in anthologies of writing by foreign correspondents in Germany and India. She currently freelances for various international and Indian publications and writes both in English and German.