In the twilight world between democracy and totalitarianism, a great many people will tell you that political persecution is a phenomenon to be abhorred.  Whatever the plausible reasons, an anti- establishment stance seldom goes without having to pay a price.  Sometimes the penalties seem to have alleged intransigence.  In the worst ‘case scenario’ the attendant flight from the country by a victim of ideological tyranny is the inevitable denouement.  As to how such an individual case study revolving round an upper middle class family of Sri Lanka could have ramifications cutting across the country’s borders forms the fairly gripping stuff of Ranjith Kuruppu’s “THE HOUSE OF THE GENTLE SOULS"