The Sandglass Paperback – 1 Sept. 2011

I bought this immediately after finishing The Reef. But while the characters are Sri Lankan, it's mostly set in grey UK. I didn't like the characters or find them that interesting and gave up about one-third of the way through. But The Reef was so good I may try another by Gunesekera.

If you are looking for a great story, well told this could be it! An essential book for summer holidays.

I found this book difficult to read as it kept jumping between narrators. The main narrator was a friend of the family whose history was being discussed but some sub chapters were a memory from one of the family, some were based on old conversations, some were from the current conversation, and the country jumped back and forth too. The sub chapters are quite short (which was good for me as I only had a brief time to read in each sitting) and the constant changing between setting was often unclear until you were a little way in which I found disruptive to the story.The story itself was interesting but I felt there may have been a better way to tell it.I first read this many years ago and decided to give it another chance before taking it to the charity shop - it is now on its way there.