An epic novel of love, loss & a family uprooted, set in the contrasting landscapes of war-torn Sri Lanka & immigrant London. Grace de Silva, wife of the shiftless but charming Aloysius, has five children & a crumbling marriage. Her eldest son, Jacob, wants desperately to go to Engl&. Thornton, the most beautiful of all the children & his mother`s favourite, dreams of becoming a poet. Alicia wants to be a concert pianist. Only Frieda has no ambition, other than to remain close to her family. But civil unrest is stirring in Sri Lanka & Christopher, the youngest & the rebel of the family, is soon caught up in the tragedy that follows. As the decade unfolds against a backdrop of increasing ethnic violence, Grace watches helplessly as the life she knows begins to crumble. Slowly, this once happy family is torn apart as four of her children each make the decision to leave their home. In London, the de Silvas are all, in their different ways, desperately homesick. Caught in a cultural clash between East & West, life is not as they expected. Only Thornton`s daughter, Meeka, moves confidently into a world that is full of possibilities. But nothing is as easy as it seems & she must overcome heartbreak, a terrible mistake & single parenthood before she is finally able to see the extraordinary effects of history on her family`s migration.