Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War

Moving and enlightening. Frances Harrison has made sense of a vast, complicated calamity by examining it from the ground up. This book comprises a series of testimonies from ordinary people caught up in the bloody and notorious fighting at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war. Of course, these ordinary people have extraordinary stories to tell and demonstrate inspirational fortitude simply in recounting the abject horror that they have endured. The book makes very clear the damage wrought upon them by their experiences. The testimonies - very carefully selected, recorded and edited - take us by the hand and walk us through the Sri Lankan war zone - sights, sounds and smells. It is a very direct way of learning about the war. At points it is decidedly harrowing. But always accessible, always human and sometimes very moving. The introduction and Harrisons discrete and clear prose give context to each story. But the voices of the subjects come through with the greatest clarity and distinction. For me it is the personal details - the particular and the peculiar - that best evoke the true nature of war. This book is full of unexpected moments which have stuck with me after reading. I recommend Still Counting The Dead - certainly to people interested in the specific, highly politicized, topic of the Sri Lankan war. But also to a general reader, interested simply in human experience of war witnessed from within.