From one of our most widely praised travel writers--author ofWild CoastandPanther Soup--an eye-opening journey through Sri Lanka that, in the author's inimitable mixture of history, observation, and interpretation, reveals the island nation to us as never before.Writing with his signature eye for the unusually telling detail, his sense of urbane wonder, and his investigative desire for the whole story, John Gimlette takes us from Sri Lanka's exuberant capital city of Colombo to the dry interior where more than 5,300 wild elephants congregate at an ancient reservoir; from the Portuguese-built cinnamon forts of the west coast to the tsunami-ravaged south; from the tea plantations of the highlands and the Shangri-la-ish city of Kandy to the nearly barren Jaffna Peninsula in the north. He examines Sri Lanka's colonial history (Portuguese, British, Dutch, even a touch of Danish); the centuries-old strife between Buddhist Sinhalese and Hindu Tamils; and...