Re-engaging Sri Lanka as a site for reconciliation or a perpetuation of trauma: Roma Tearne's Brixton Beach

Memory and home are often at the core of transnational diasporic writings. Transnational Sri Lankan writers are no exception as one often finds that the homeland of Sri Lanka is often the site for memories that jostle between spaces that are both pleasant and traumatic. This paper focuses on the ways in which Brixton Beach, a novel by transnational writer Roma Tearne, explores the intricacies of the Sri Lankan relationship amongst family members and ethnic members of the society. The discussion, framed by Avtar Brah's concept of home as both mythic desire and lived locality, will delve into the memories of Sri Lanka that emerge in the narrative thread to ultimately uncover whether these memories point at a sense of reconciliation or a perpetuation of trauma that heightens the exile from the homeland.