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ABA Journal: Modern Law Library : Debut novelist's tale of Sri Lankan refugees wins the Harper Lee Prize
ABA Journal Podcasts - Legal Talk Network
English - August 28, 2019 11:00 - 38 minutes - 53.3 MB - ★★★★★ - 22 ratingsGovernment Business Non-Profit Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
In 2009 and 2010, two cargo ships packed with refugees fleeing the Sri Lankan civil war arrived on the shores of Canada. Those refugees inspired Sharon Bala's debut novel, "The Boat People," which won the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Told through the eyes of a Sri Lankan man seeking asylum for himself and his son; a young Sri Lankan-Canadian law student reluctantly assigned to help with his case; and the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants to Canada interned during World War II, who will have to decide whether the details of his story add up. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Bala speaks with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles about the true stories behind her fictional novel, and what winning the prize named for the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird" means to her.