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Don't Go, Ramanya
Rush Leaming, Author
Adult; General Fiction (including literary and historical); (Market)
Ramanya, a former rebel soldier from Burma (Myanmar), now lives as a Buddhist monk in Thailand. One morning, a strange man appears at Ramanya’s temple and says that his family, which Ramanya had long thought dead, is actually alive and in hiding back in Burma.
Is it true? Or just a trick by the ruling junta to lure him back and execute him for war crimes?
A hostage crisis in downtown Bangkok rockets up tension between the two countries. Armies mobilize and head to the border. Ramanya and two of his closest confidants — an American teacher and a British priest— have 48 hours to get to Three Pagodas Pass and sneak him past the military before the border is completely sealed.
Three men running from secrets and tragedies in their past. Four tense days in and around Bangkok.
Reviews
Leaming’s intriguing and fast-paced debut follows the actions of three men during the 1999 Myanmar Embassy siege in Bangkok by Burmese rebels. They are a monk named Ramanya, an English priest named Father Bob, and an American teacher named Michael, something they admit “sounds like the beginning of a horrible joke.” All three have left troubled lives behind to start anew in Bangkok. Right before the embassy is taken, Ramanya learns that the family he thought he lost in Burma could still be alive, and sets off to find out. Father Bob and Michael join his journey in order to escape their own problems. With the help of friends and those they meet along the way, the trio hurries to cross the border into Myanmar before it is closed. Filled with excellent descriptions (“a mist filled valley, white clouds clinging to the forest walls like cotton candy”), this thoughtful tale keeps the pages turning. Leaming effectively steps back from the turmoil of a terrorist attack and reminds readers of individual lives as they exist during and after disruption. (BookLife)
The Midwest Book Review
Don't Go, Ramanya is thriller reading at its best, cementing a turbulent political atmosphere with an overlay of diverse and realistic human concerns and endeavors that border on the extraordinary. Genre fans who seek atmosphere and description in their reads will find that Leaming doesn't sacrifice either psychological depth or evocative setting for the sake of fast-paced action, winding all into an emotionally and socially charged saga that's hard to put down.
