{"product_id":"dark-tourist-hasanthika-sirisena-9780814258125","title":"Dark Tourist: Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFinalist for the 2022 LAMBDA literary award in bisexual nonfiction\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the 2021 Gournay Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Shimmers with honesty, vulnerability, and circumspection.\" --\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Sirisena explores how stories can become a 'talisman against the overwhelming darkness of another's pain' in her emotionally charged nonfiction debut ... [Her] searching spirit leaves readers with plenty to dig into.\" --\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Dark tourism--visiting sites of war, violence, and other traumas experienced by others--takes different forms in Hasanthika Sirisena's stunning excavation of the unexpected places (and ways) in which personal identity and the riptides of history meet. The 1961 plane crash that left a nuclear warhead buried near her North Carolina hometown, juxtaposed with reflections on her father's stroke. A visit to Jaffna in Sri Lanka--the country of her birth, yet where she is unmistakably a foreigner--to view sites from the recent civil war, already layered over with the narratives of the victors. A fraught memory of her time as a young art student in Chicago that is uneasily foundational to her bisexual, queer identity today. The ways that life-changing impairments following a severe eye injury have shaped her thinking about disability and self-worth. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Deftly blending reportage, cultural criticism, and memoir, Sirisena pieces together facets of her own sometimes-fractured self to find wider resonances with the human universals of love, sex, family, and art--and with language's ability to both fail and save us.\u003ci\u003e Dark Tourist\u003c\/i\u003e becomes then about finding a home, if not in the world, at least within the limitless expanse of the page.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Hasanthika Sirisena\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0814258123\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780814258125\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Mad Creek Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/10\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 184\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.50lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.50w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/11\/2021","brand":"Hasanthika Sirisena","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44049581080831,"sku":"9780814258125","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_37827edc-0a4b-403f-a09f-a29ee7522d72.jpg?v=1685002333","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/dark-tourist-hasanthika-sirisena-9780814258125","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}