Yasodhara's mother is an aspiring doctor, trying to follow her older brother's footsteps until a tragedy occurs forcing her to become the saving grace for her family but not before she falls into a forbidden love with the upstairs neighbor, a Tamil boy. She begins with her father, who grows up in a fishing village raised by a father who has no issues with speaking with those of lower caste and an overbearing mother who is all high and mighty with high hopes for her children. Yasodhara shortly introduces herself and entices the reader with telling the story of her parents (who are both Sinhalese). The novel starts off in the year 1948 with the last of the British ships leaving Sri Lanka (at that time named Ceylon) as it officially becomes an independent nation. The beautiful aspect of this novel is it doesn't just focus on Yasodhara but on sisterhood and the strength of family in perilous times. Yasodhara is a young woman who emigrated to the United States with her mother, father, and younger sister Lanka, known as La from Sri Lanka as the civil war was gearing into motion.
The author Nayomi Munaweera mirrors aspects of her life into the main character Yasodhara Rajasinghe and freely expresses her feminist ideology through the little details. It shows a world that holds strongly onto tradition and what it means to be from an affluent family. It gives a glimpse into the world of forbidden love, prejudice, and arranged marriages as a civil war begins to simmer in the background. Island of a Thousand Mirrors is the type of novel that completely sweeps the reader away into a world known little to outsiders.
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