My Story: Across New Horizons
Across New Horizons: A Young Man's Journey to Australia
Book 2 of the My Story Series
By Christopher Selvarajah
From the plantations of Malaya to the boarding halls of Tasmania, Across New Horizons traces the transformative years of a young man coming of age across continents, cultures, and inner convictions. This second instalment of Christopher Selvarajah's memoir series, My Story: A Life Between Lands, is both a personal recollection and a universal meditation on identity, migration, and belonging.
Beginning with a poignant departure from his homeland, Selvarajah captures the emotional and cultural weight of leaving home at seventeen to study in Australia. Through vivid storytelling, we follow his journey through Tasmania's Launceston Grammar School and his university years in Hobart and New Zealand. Each chapter unfolds layers of discovery: the disorientation of cultural shock, the intimacy of shared friendships, the emergence of political and spiritual consciousness, and the resilience needed to build a life in unfamiliar terrain.
Selvarajah's reflections explore not only external transitions-moving from tropical Malaya to the windswept landscapes of Tasmania-but also the interior shifts that reshape a young man's understanding of faith, justice, family, and personal responsibility. Rich with detail, his encounters span religious conversions, student activism, family expectations, entrepreneurial ventures, and the challenges of racism and prejudice, all set against the backdrop of the 1960s and 70s.
Through school traditions, early relationships, and spiritual searching, Across New Horizons reveals how inherited values evolve when confronted by new realities. The rituals of his Tamil-Malayan past blend with new Australian ideals, leading to a broader, more inclusive worldview. The narrative carries a deep philosophical undercurrent, questioning what it means to grow, adapt, and remain true to oneself in a rapidly changing world.
Whether describing the regimented routines of boarding school, the raw landscape of Queenstown's copper mines, or the complex terrain of student leadership and cultural identity, Selvarajah's prose is reflective, compassionate, and richly observant. He moves beyond nostalgia to offer a candid chronicle of growth and self-reinvention.
Across New Horizons is not just a story of migration-it is about the in-between spaces where past and future, tradition and modernity, East and West, coalesce to shape a new self. For readers who have ever stood between cultures or embarked on a journey of becoming, this memoir offers resonance, insight, and inspiration.
This second book prepares the ground for Book 3: Tracing Roots and Rekindling Bonds, where the journey circles back to Malaysia-a return that is more than geographic, but deeply emotional and philosophical.
Praise for the Series
"My Story is a remarkable tapestry of memory, meaning, and the timeless human search for belonging."
"Selvarajah's narrative voice is reflective, lyrical, and quietly profound."
Customer Reviews
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