Set during the background of the recent civil war in Sri Lanka, this somewhat sad and ultimately realistic story traces the lives of two individuals from vastly different backgrounds. Nadesan is a trained mechanic working in the north-east of the country in his father's garage. Traumatized by the loss of his young family at the hands of the military and obsessed by the need to avenge their death, he has to find a way to hurt the people who took away everything he loved. Driven to the depths of despair he doesn't care if he has to die in the process. Amanthi works as a burns unit doctor in the capital Colombo, treating women driven by the cycle of domestic violence and cultural tradition to despair and self-immolation. She has to call on all her skills and experience treating burn victims when a car bomb explodes outside the crowded central bus terminal in the market suburb of Pettah killing and injuring hundreds of people. Even amid the most unimaginable horrors of war, each will find a clear purpose; one to maim and destroy and the other to save lives and rebuild.
Roderic Grigson was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka where he was educated and lived till he was twenty-one. Rod's family were Burghers, descendants of the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonials who ruled the island nation for 450 years. With no prospects in the former British colony of Ceylon that had become a socialist state run by Sinhalese nationals, he left the country of his birth with a few dollars in his pocket and entered the United States on a tourist visa. He found work at the United Nations Headquarters in New York where he worked for the next twelve years. After studying information technology at New York University, he volunteered and joined the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Egypt and Lebanon, serving on the Suez Canal during the signing of the Israel Egypt Peace Accord and in South Lebanon and Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. After spending two years in the field, Rod came back to New York in 1980 and joined the UN Technological Innovations team. He spent the next six years helping develop and implementing office information systems in six languages in UN regional offices around the world. Rod migrated with his wife to Australia in 1986 where he became a senior executive for a global IT company with responsibilities across the Asia Pacific region. In 2012, after choosing to retire early from corporate life, Rod completed a 6-month Creative Writing course and began writing his first novel. This book, 'The Sullen Hills', is Rod's third book. His first book 'Sacred Tears' was released in 2014 and his second, 'After the Flames', in 2017.
