Pulled from a dark ocean after a battle at sea, Commodore Boyagoda became the highest-ranking prisoner detained by the Tamil Tigers. For eight years, he lived in close quarters with declared enemy- his imprisonment punctuated by high-level talks about his fate, but also by extended conversations with his jailers and scratch games of badminton played in jungle clearings. Throughout, he observed his captors and fellow prisoners acutely and with discreet empathy for the lives of others undone by war.
A memoir told in Ajith Boyagodas temperate voice, this is an unblinking narration of experiences difficult, moving and ironic. From life at sea to war, Imprisonment and eventual homecoming, he accepted successive realities as ordinary in order to survive them.
A Long Watch is a story of human complexity that both challenges and nuance the entrenched narratives of Sri Lankas long civil war.
