Tamil Tigress

by Niromi de Soyza

Two days before Christmas in 1987, at the age of 17, Niromi de Soyza found herself in an ambush as part of a small platoon of militant Tamil Tigers fighting government forces in the bloody civil war that was to engulf Sri Lanka for decades. With her was her lifelong friend, Ajanthi, also aged 17. Leaving behind them their shocked middle-class families, the teenagers had become part of the Tamil Tigers' first female contingent.

Equipped with little more than a rifle and a cyanide capsule, Niromi's group managed to survive on their wits in the jungle, facing not only the perils of war but starvation, illness, and growing internal tensions among the militant Tigers. And then events erupted in ways that she could no longer bear.

How was it that this well-educated, mixed-race, middle-class girl from a respectable family came to be fighting with the Tamil Tigers? Today she lives in Sydney with her husband and children; but Niromi de Soyza is not your ordinary woman and this is her compelling story.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, War, Historical, Biography, History, Politics

308 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2011

About the author

Niromi de Soyza speaks fluent Tamil and Sinhalese and writes vivid beautiful English. For many years she worked for the Red Cross in Sydney, where she still lives with her husband and two young children.

Reviews

[Shivani · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book. I lived contemporary to the author in Jaffna. I would not see any factual errors. Open and honest ( unbiased view) . It is really encouraging as a migrant how a girl went through such a painful path and turn her life around and contributing back to the Country she came from. Amazing inspired story !

It took me back to the country where I was born and brought up.

Author Niromi De Soyza ( pen name ) was known to Chundikuli Girls College, Jaffna Holy family convent and St.John's College students who studies in the period 1986-1988 . Authentication of the story is unquestionable.

As a Memoir , it cannot be treated as a History book. It is about her life story. People who read the book open mind will appreciate

I also found some background about the author and book from the following link
http://www.tamiltigress.com/Home.html

[Nimash Athukoralalage · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Sinhalese and living in a foreign country I have largely been blinded to the Tamil side of the terrible Sri Lankan Civil War. Niromi de Soyza's very descriptive approach at letting the readers also experience what she went through as a child soldier was very rewarding. In some points in this novel I really did connect with it as I have visited the spots she had mentioned and her direct contact with LTTE leader Prabhakaran surprised me. All in all this is a very well written book for those who wish to experience or gain knowledge of one side of the Sri Lankan Civil War.

[Stephen Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far so good. The newspaper review that tempted me to buy this book did warn that the writing style was a little naive in it's approach, so I was prepared for the style the book is written in.

Okay, now I've finished so I can fully apraise my thoughts of this memoir. I guess the easiest way to summarise it was I was hoping for a little more depth of feelings or perspective of the issues and characters described in the book. That sounds a little mean but I felt by the end of the book that I had only been given a "glimpse" of the life the author experienced. Okay, at some points in the narrative I did have empathy for the author but for most of the time I felt passive about the events and the feelings that the author shared.

Overall, the book was worth reading as it did give me a better understanding of some of the issues and complexities of the conflict in this "hidden" war. I had been oblivious to the Indian Army's involvement in what was a civil war and they seemed to have been more than just a "peace keeper force". I was also surprised by the Tamil Tigers brutality even to their own members.

It does make me wonder about so many other "civil wars" still going on around the world and current conflicts such as Afghanistan and the Australian peace keeping involvement there.

As they say "History is often written by the winner" and you do wonder what the "real" truth was about a particular event in history especially in war time.

[Pubudini Jayakody · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Sri Lankan citizen, it was really painful to read Niromi de Soyza's Tamil Tigress. Even I was a little girl at the time, I have faded memories of war. I remember how afraid my parents were when they sent my brother to his school in the city. I remember listening to and watching the news about bomb attacks. Now as a grown-up, I realize it's just one side of the story. I feel sorry for teenagers like Niromi who fought in the war; forced or blinded to sacrifice their young lives. I'm so proud that Niromi was brave enough to share her experiences with the world. Despite where, who and why, war brings sufferings and tragedies to people. There is no good in war; it's just pure evil.

[Tee Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free the Tamil Tigers

[Sanchayan Sriskandarajah · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are lot of controversies raised by some Sri Lankan observers questioning the authenticity of the accounts. Certainly the book is strewn with factual errors. I would credit them to sloppiness, ignorance and lack of research, for she thinks Vembadi as a Hindu school but in fact it is a Methodist on the part of author. After all they are human errors and could be tolerated and they do not challenge the authenticity of the account at least in my opinion. The author seems familiar with the ways of life in Jaffna and local tongue.Her description of historical events are correct to best of my knowledge. However, some parts of the story is a bit difficult to believe. The narrative seems bit more dramatic with creative elements and some characters specially that of Mahataya seems unusually animated. I believe at least part of the story, specially the parts about tiger Roshan, scenes at the University of Jaffna and later at Wanni Forests, has been made up to make it more attractive to international audience. The rests seems realistic and overall whether it is work of fiction and a memoir, it is moving and touches its audience.

[Lavanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly an interesting read. As someone who has grown up thinking of the LTTE merely as terrorists and nothing more, this book did make me feel a sense of empathy for the "early" beginnings of the LTTE.

My issue with the book, however, is that it touches upon too many different characters and storylines without ever really giving any depth to what is being narrated. Especially towards the end I felt like the conclusion of the book was a bit abrupt.

Nonetheless, I do recommend this book especially to fellow Sri Lankans who have been educated about the Sri Lankan Civil War in biased echo chambers - be it Sinhala or Tamil nationalist ones.

[Hannah Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't normally love biographies but Niromi's story is important and I'm grateful she told it.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s the mid 1980s. Sri Lanka is in the in the grip of a tragic and horrific civil war as various separatist groups, including the Tamil Tigers, fought against the government. To many young Tamils, the Sinhala-dominated-government was discriminating against the Tamil minority, and direct action was the only option.
Niromi de Soyza is young, well-connected and well-educated. She is also extremely idealistic and patriotic. She scandalises her conservative middle-class family by joining the Tamil Tigers, when they were first accepting female recruits, feeling that this was the best way to fight the government persecution of her people. This is her story of that horrendous time in her life.
She was with the Tamil Tigers for a year, and a futile and miserable year it was, despite making some friends, and feeling that she was doing the best thing to achieve the objective of a separate Tamil state. She saw friends die, she was always on the run, always malnourished. She describes the disciplinary practices of the Tigers and the heinous activities that led to the Tigers being called a terrorist organisation. The Tigers come across as repressive and murderous, with some repressive and inhumane organisational and disciplinary practices. For example, one young man was ordered to kill his father, who was suspected of being an informer.

Niromi’s account of her time with the Tamil Tigers is not emotional, and there is no sense of outrage or passion in her writing. Her story is told in a very flat tone, which fails to move me. This is perhaps why I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I thought I would. I thought I might get an answer to the question of why anyone would join this group. Although there was lip-service paid to idealism and separatist fervour, I finished the book with the distinct impression of a young girl in love with the idea of carrying an AK-47!

[Enakshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Sinhalese Buddhist living in Sri Lanka, I experience a different kind of Sri Lanka from the ethnic minorities here. I’ve been taught a different and biased version of what caused the civil war and the blame is always on the Tamil community so this book was eye-opening in that it taught me about the plight of the Tamil population, especially those in the Jaffna peninsula. While I’ve read that the author’s account has factual errors (which is problematic), I didn’t pick this book up to read up on facts; I wanted to read a personal account of the war and the buildup to it from someone within the Tamil community. In this regard, in my opinion, the book was a success.

I was also impressed by how this didn’t seem to be a book with a political agenda, with a definitive slant to portraying the LTTE as heroes and martyrs when they were flawed too, like regular people. I admire the fact that this author penned a book that isn’t meant to drum up sympathy for the terrorist group or hatred for the government, it’s just her account of what happened to her and what she felt from her perspective: she went from idolising the LTTE to becoming disillusioned by certain aspects of the movement. So I really like the fact that she seemed to stay true to her feelings and relayed anecdotes accordingly.

All in all, I think this book is an insightful representation of life as a member of the Tamil community in war-torn Sri Lanka and life as a child soldier within the LTTE movement.

[Anittha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book! it's difficult to read because it can get really emotional..but it really shows a different perspective to the whole Tamil genocide! I wouldn't say its changed my opinions but i am more aware now of what happened during this time in Sri Lanka. This book provides a unique perspective in comparison to what we heard in the media, since she was a former Tamil Tiger. That made it really interesting to read, as I had never heard a perspective from the Tamil Tigers.

[Kimberley Kanages · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very insightful account of a young woman in the Tigers during the 80s.
I found myself stopping frequently to ask my husband who grew up in Sri Lanka during this time about different events. All of her storyline was true and he even learned a lot. Her account was fair and honest. Her take on being a female, Christian Tamil was really eye opening. I always wondered why women would want to join. Her story made a lot of sense.
I can't help but feel as though that she had protected her story quite a bit - understandably so.
It's not the most well written book and there's quite a few editing errors but overall it was really interesting and I learned a great deal. I even had quite a few 'laugh out loud' moments.
Her summary regarding whether there will truly be a peaceful Sri Lanka still rings true 6 years after this book was published - will there be true peace if violence is always used as a solution to a problem?

[Raz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The blurb on the back of this book says Niromi de Soyza is "not your ordinary woman", but I think that kind of misses the point of her story.

I feel like the main thing which comes through in this book is how Niromi and the other Tigers she knew and lived with are just normal people doing their best to live through godawful circumstances. She does a great job of humanising everyone she talks about, and of showing why she felt like she needed to leave behind almost every part of her old life to become a soldier. She also illuminates how easy that can turn to extremist behaviour and how a life of constant violence can desensitise people to violence and death.

I'm glad she got out of that existence and salvaged a life and family for herself, she seems like an intelligent and empathic person who was driven by her idealism and sense of justice to take on a fight she was sadly never going to be able to win.

[Meenakshisankar M · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fictionalized version of the author Niromi’s personal experiences for two years as part of the women’s wing. She had been one of the first to join the women’s wing as it was being formed. It covers the initial days of her military-style training (during which she interacts with most of the top brass of the movement) and some of the initial days of fighting with the Indian Peace Keeping Force and her eventual disillusionment with what was going on. The initial portion of the novel which describe the events leading up to her decision to join the movement are also narrated very well. She joins the movement when she was just a teenager (not even out of school) and most others with her in her unit are also of similar age. Some of the dialogues among themselves bring out their adolescent mindset very well, and it adds a beautifully poignant layer to the novel itself.

[Avishka Laknath · Rating 4 out of 5]

මා කියැවූ තවත් සුවිශේෂී ග්‍රන්ථයක් ලෙස නිරෝමි විසින් රචිත "කොටි දියණියකගේ පාපොච්චාරණය" කෘතිය හැඳින්විය හැක. නිරෝමිගේ රචනා ශෛලිය මා හට වෙහෙසක් නොදරාම පොත කියැවීමට මහත් පිටිවහලක් විය. කෙසේ වුවත් ඈ මුහුණ දුන් කටුක අත්දැකීම් පිලිබඳව කියවන විට මා තේරුම් ගත්තේ යුද්ධය මා සිතුවාටත් වඩා අමිහිරි බවයි. ඒ විඳි දුක් කම්කටොලු අතිශයෙන්ම වේදනාකාරී බව අමුතුවෙන් තෙරුම් ගත යුතු නැත.

යුද්ධයෙන් දමිල ජනයාටත්, සිංහල ජනතාවටත් උරුම වූයේ කටුක ජීවිතයක් හා ඇතැම්විට මරණයද පමණි. වත්මනෙහි ත්‍රස්ථවාදී වෑයම පරාජය වී ඇතත් නැවත මේ භූමියෙහි යුද්ධයක් ආරම්භ නොවීමට අවශ්‍ය දේශපාලනික වටපිටාව සාදා අවසන්ද?

මගේ මතය අනුව අප තවමත් දමිල ජනතාව ඇතුලු බහුතර මේ රටේ ජනතාවගේ ජීවත් වීමේ අයිතිය තහවුරු කර නැත. එවන් පසුබිමක් තුල අප සියලුදෙනා තුල යලි අන්‍යෝන්‍ය විශ්වාසය ගොඩනැගෙන ලෙස කටයුතු කිරීම අතිශයෙන්ම වැදගත් වේ.

නිරෝමි, ඔබව මුණ ගැසී වචනයක් කතා කිරීමට ආසාවෙන් පසුවෙමි.

අවිශ්ක ලක්නාත් ගුණරත්න
02.07.2022

[Ramindu Thivanka · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of a young girl who belongs to the middle class of tamil family and joined to LTTE to help claiming the eelam.
It runs in the time period of late 80s. Tells how hard it was she to adopt for the hard lives of LTTE soldiers. How the neighbour countries specially India fertilized the war. The pitfalls of both parties.
At the she understood the lies, the cruelty of the organisation.
In the end I felt this, actually the civil war of Sri Lanka started not for the need of civilians but for the politicians. In the end of war nor civilians of both nations have gained anything other than losses. But even up to very date the politicians still sells the racism to maintain their power.
Hopefully the civilians will be able to see that soon

[Shiny · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perspective is the most important aspect of war related books according to be. If the book tends to be bias then their is nothing to learn. This book is purely unbiased, points out the mistakes of SL government, involvement of India. And specially the hidden truth of Prabhakaran. The most important factors which proceeded the war to it's peek is documented chronologically. this is a must read by all Sri Lankans.

[Abhinaya J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Niromi’s story is factual and rooted in her experiences, and corroborates so many other’s during the Eelam Tamil genocide including other public works and private stories shared within our communities. It is also a great insight as to how the Tamil Tigers also turned on their own people in an insane plot for power. I hope many others who survived the war will publish their experiences too.

[Preeti · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real up and close first person account of how the Tigers operated esp from a female cadre’s view, which was quite fascinating and gripping. Although the author seems to have been dogged by a few controversies, it doesn’t take away the fact that it’s a rare piece of work as very few books give an inside account of the lives of the tigers.

[Mathangi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book! The author talks about the daily realities of warfare, but also the larger questions of violence to combat violence, and what feminism is and is not. I’m impressed with the authors authenticity and courage to write this book. A book worth reading.

[Chitral Gamage · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking story of a young soldier in Sri Lanka. Shows how unfortunate a war can be to the people involved; and why we should stop conflicts at any cost. Niromi has written the book in a natural tone so that it lets the reader to feel like walking beside the author. Five stars!

[Sudesh Katugampola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting read. First time I learned that India even trained female LTTE fighters and they were involved in an early stages of war

[Gihan Alwis · Rating 5 out of 5]

යුද්ධය ගැන වෙනම කෝණයකින් බැලීමට ඕනෑම කෙනෙක් උරුකරවණ කෘතියක් ලෙස මෙය දැක්විමට හැක.සෑම අයෙක්ම කියවිය යුත්තක් ලෙස මා මෙය සලකමි.

[Veeramani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice

[Kavinda Ratnapala · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true account of the trials of terror from a woman's world view

[Amila N · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok. Nice story overall but not the best war time recollection.

[Blue Owl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite read but held my interest and I learnt new things

[Dhananjayan Jayabal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heart gripping tale

[Andria CM · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of a book club. I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of the conflicts in Sri Lanka, so was intrigued to read this.

This is based in mid-1980s and the account of Niromi de Soyza's (pen name) experience. The writing style is a little naïve but understandable. I enjoyed the start of the book and found that it did pull me in with the background of Sri Lanka, political information and corruption. I was surprised at the brutality between the various Tamil organizations and even within the Tigers.

I was disappointed with the lack of depth and emotion towards the various situations and her interactions with her friends/family. I was also disappointed at how abruptly the book ended.

Overall, it was a good read and showed me a glimpse of the Tamil Tigers in the mid-1980s.

[Mhinchley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an autobiographical account of how a middle class Sri Lankin girl becomes a solider for the Tamil Tigers - the rebels against the ruling government. I enjoyed this book as I came to it with no knowledge of Sri Lanka's bloody civil war, so in that way it provided me with some insight into this. It was also an interesting perspective - being from an intelligent middle class girl, that found herself at the front line for the Tigers.

I did feel it was lacking in some detail. The personal story didn't have much depth as I would have liked - it felt a little superficial. I would have enjoyed the book even more if it delved deeper into her personal experience - the author seems to have removed herself a little from the experience.