Thank you to the team at Pan Macmillan for giving me this opportunity: Alex Lloyd, Deonie Fiford, Haylee Nash, Mathilda Imlah and Cate Paterson. I’m a better writer because of it. Alex, what a constructive partnership you created.
Thank you so much to Alex Craig for your support and encouragement of my writing. I couldn’t have written this second book without your insights into my first one. Nor would I have published this second book without you.
A very big thank you to my agent, Tara Wynne at Curtis Brown Australia, for pushing me and this book tirelessly. Tara’s faith was firm when mine wavered.
My First Readers on this one were much the same as the last one (sorry gang): Kate Kelly, Nat Oliver, Bek Cheney, Lisa Havas and Natascha Pereira. Thank you for loving this book right from the first disturbing scene. I’m not sorry – I’m grateful and so lucky to have you.
Kate Kelly, I’ve known you for as long as I’ve loved reading. I don’t really remember books before you. And for as long as we have read together, you’ve told me I can write. Thank you.
I am especially fortunate with my book club – Sandra, Narelle, Tina, Carmela, Alex, Angela and Su Lin – who generously and patiently read this manuscript and helped me navigate the ‘when, where and how’ of each reveal. Your friendship is an essential part of my writing process and my life.
Keda Ormsby was entrusted with the product of writing each day for many months. At the end of each day you told me that tomorrow I should write some more. How do you eat an elephant? With a great friend by your side.
To Latha and Tim, this book is about many things but mostly faith and loss. Your losses are incomprehensible. Your faith in each other is intensely tangible. It’s always in the room, just like Anji.
Thank you to Clare Lewis at Clare Lewis Photography for making me look like a ‘real author’. And to Jodie Wood, the artist whose work helps me see before I write. Thank you to Kerry from Kerry Richards Design for creating my beautiful website. Also to the University of Western Australia Law School, through Kate, for helping me understand the role of historic contagions in the development of policy and power disparities.
Mum and Rohan, the original Team Siva, were entrusted with the care of our children (and at times me), when I got lost wandering through the streets of Colombo, 2040. Mum has a spirit that always leads me home.
I am profoundly grateful to my siblings, Narendran and Rachel. Thank you for patiently explaining (and re-explaining) the finer points of immunology, cellular biology, epidemiology and the other -ologies to me. Thank you also for helping me throw out everything you taught me and create science (fiction) that was consistent and rigorous. You are wonderful teachers and beautiful siblings.
Darling Ellora, Kailash, Hari and Sid, I wrote this book originally as an adventure story for you but it quickly became far too violent. Read it when you’re older and don’t swear, just because Mummy does. There aren’t enough words or lifetimes for me to tell you how deeply I love you.
This book is dedicated to my parents who gave us our faith. Your commitment to community, spirituality and science inspired us. ‘Thank you’ will never express what we owe you. When you read this book, I hope you realise that Narendran and I really were listening.
And finally, to my husband Haran Siva – your faith in me drove this book and your faith in us sustains our greatest creative partnership. Thank you for being the beginning of all things. And for letting us get the puppy.
About Shankari Chandran
Shankari Chandran was raised in Canberra, Australia. She spent a decade in London, working as a lawyer in the social justice field. She eventually returned home to Australia, where she now lives with her husband, four children and their cavoodle puppy.
The Barrier is her second novel. Her first novel, Song of the Sun God explores the recent history of Sri Lanka. She is currently working on her third book, also set there.
First published 2017 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2000
Copyright © Shankari Chandran 2017
The moral right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
Cataloguing-in-Publication entry is available
from the National Library of Australia
http://catalogue.nla.gov.au
EPUB format: 9781760553975
Typeset Midland Typesetters, Australia
Cover design: Madacin Creative
Cover images: Zoltan Toth/Trevillion Images, Shutterstock
Map illustration: IRONGAV
The characters in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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