pbIn the tradition of iIn the Time of the Butterfliesi and iThe Kite Runneri, a tender, evocative novel about the years leading up to the Sri Lankan civil warbbrbbpp A iLibrary Journal iBest Indie Fiction of 2013 A iLargehearted Boy iBest Book of the Year ppOn the day the Herath family moves in, Sal Mal Lane is still a quiet street, disturbed only by the cries of the children whose triumphs and tragedies sustain the families that live there. As the neighbors adapt to the newcomers in different ways, the children fill their days with cricket matches, romantic crushes, and small rivalries. But the tremors of civil war are mounting, and the conflict threatens to engulf them all. br In a heartrending novel poised between the past and the future, the innocence of the children--a beloved sister and her overprotective siblings, a rejected son and his twin sisters, two very different brothers--contrasts sharply with the petty prejudices of the adults charged with their care. In Ru Freeman's m