What Lies Between Us by Nayomi Munaweera

Yes, the protagonist was a powerful and sometimes difficult character to write about and yet for me, writing is rather similar to method acting. But I’m a firm believer that the work of the writer is to explore the deeper aspects of human nature. This was another dark book! I seem incapable of writing light material. What were the difficulties you encountered in creating this powerful character? It is also the exploration of childhood trauma and how it affects adult lives and relationships. She also explores the theme of migration and shows aims to show how one can lose their sense of belonging and feel like a hybrid as they feel they belong neither here nor there.ġ.‘What lies between us’ explores the complexities of love between a mother and a child. She deals with the universal theme of motherhood, and shows the sacrifices one has to make as a mother. Her characters are complex and well fleshed out and they evoke a great deal of empathy amongst readers, despite their vices. Nayomi Munaweera lives strongly by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s quote “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” Like most South Asian and African writers, her novel encompasses beautiful nature imagery and it bursts with colour, despite it being a rather dark read.

Her second novel ‘What Lies Between Us’ is about childhood ‘terror’ experienced by at the hands of an abuser that makes the character commit the most unforgivable act a mother could commit.

In ‘Island of a Thousand Mirrors’, the debut novel of Nayomi Munaweera which won the Commonwealth Regional Book Award for Asia in 2013, it is ‘terrorism’ that cripples the lives of the characters and adds profundity to the story. Most often than not victims succumb to terror in ways they do not foresee, understand or fathom. It is only a few who could stand unflinching against terror.

What Lies Between Us by Nayomi Munaweera