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Tag Archives: Shehan Karunatilaka

State of the nation

Thursday, July 9, 2020

Review of Andrew Fidel Fernando’s debut book Upon a Sleepless Isle, which has just won Sri Lanka’s Gratiaen Prize (2019) for English-language literature. – For The Critic

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Andrew Fidel Fernando, Anuradhapura, beards, beer, Booker Prize, children, Colombo, colonialism, cricket, elephants, English, ESPNCricinfo, Gratiaen Prize, humour, Jaffna, John Still, Kandy, LTTE, Michael Ondaatje, Minneriya, New Zealand, Nuwara Eliya, Picador India, Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, tea, the British, the Victorians, tourism, travel, tuktuks, Uva Rebellion, writers | Comments (0)

‘It is the living we should fear’

Sunday, March 29, 2020

DISCLAIMER: Ten years ago, I reviewed Shehan Karunatilaka’s debut novel, Chinaman, for this newspaper. It was brilliant, I said, and everyone should buy it. I noted, though, for form’s sake, that I’d done some light proofreading of the manuscript, and hoped that this would not be taken either as cause or symptom of inoperable bias. [...]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged BBC, children, Colombo, Commonwealth Book Prize, cousins, cricket, death, DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, Elvis Presley, Gratiaen Award, Herodotus, independence, Marlon James, Marxism, Michael Ondaatje, Nietzsche, novels, Oscar Wilde, pangolins, Penguin India, photography, Richard de Zoysa, Singlish, Sinhala, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL), The Mahavamsa, The Matrix, war, Wisden | Comments (0)

Living in a ghost town

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Ten years ago, I wrote the world’s first review of Chinaman, for the Sri Lankan Sunday Times. Last week, I interviewed Shehan Karunatilaka at the launch of his new novel, Chats with the Dead, at Barefoot Gallery. Here are the (brutally-abbreviated) highlights of those proceedings. – For The Sunday Times (SL)

Filed in interview, Journalism | Also tagged Barefoot, books, fiction, Sri Lanka, Sunday Times (SL) | Comments (0)

Too much Sade, not enough de Sade

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Sri Lankan erotica comes of age (prematurely) Blue: stories for adults ed. Ameena Hussein It is practically impossible to write good erotica. By which we mean literary porn. By which we mean ‘even DH Lawrence couldn’t really pull it off’. In the UK there’s actually an annual Bad Sex Award, routinely won (‘won’) by mainstream [...]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Ameena Hussein, Blue, erotica, Ink, Sri Lankan literature | Comments (1)

The greatest Googly (n)ever bowled?

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Chinaman: the legend of Pradeep Mathew – Shehan Karunatilaka Chinaman is brilliant. Brilliant, I tell you. If you don’t have a spare Rs. 800 to rush out and buy it right now, then starve yourself/rent a trishaw/sell your grandmother – whatever it takes to raise the cash. Can we leave it there? No, I suppose [...]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged cricket, Gratiaen Prize, Sunday Times (SL) | Comments (1)

Drowning in a tsunami of cliché?

Friday, May 7, 2010

The Gratiaen Prize 2009 The Gratiaen Prize – for those of you not up on your South Asian literary gongs – is an annual award given to Sri Lankan writers for creative writing in English, f(o)unded in 1993 by Michael Ondaatje, with his English Patient Booker winnings. Writing-in-English is a small crowd here – ‘here’ [...]

Filed in feature, Journalism | Also tagged Gratiaen Prize, Michael Ondaatje, Sri Lankan literature | Comments (0)

Second Thoughts

Monday, April 5, 2010

Very Short Stories* by ASH Smyth (et al.) * inspired by the Galle Literary Festival’s Opening Lines Project Antony Beevor In history, as in politics, intellectual honesty is the first casualty of moral outrage. In both disciplines, the first casualty of intellectual honesty is one’s wallet. David Blacker ‘He hit the morning, running, Benzedrine and [...]

Filed in Fictions, Journalism | Also tagged Antony Beevor, David Blacker, Gillian Slovo, Ian Rankin, Lal Medawattegedara, Louise Doughty, Michelle de Kretser, Rana Dasgupta, Ru Freeman, Shyam Selvadurai, very short stories, Wendy Cope | Comments (1)

Beer, Roving, and getting to write your own headlines

Monday, March 1, 2010

Letter from the Galle Literary Festival 2011. – For theartsdesk

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Ashok Ferrey, Blaft, Chinaman: the legend of Pradeep Mathew, Claire Tomalin, David Blacker, Diran Adebayo, Galle Literary Festival, Geoff Dyer, Geoffrey Bawa, Gillian Slovo, Ian Rankin, Kaveri Lalchand, literature, Louise Doughty, Malinda Seneviratne, McSweeney's, Michael Frayn, Michael Meyler, Mohammed Hanif, Monica Narula, Neluka Silva, Philip Roth, Pradeep Jeganathan, Rana Dasgupta, Ru Freeman, Sarnath Banerjee, Shyam Selvadurai, Smriti Daniel, theartsdesk, Ulrik Plesner, Wendy Cope | Comments (0)

Chicken dancing, naughty Tamil literature, and Rana Dasgupta goes Solo (outdoors)

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Galle Literary Festival diary – part 3.

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Ashok Ferrey, Blaft, Cyril Connolly, David Blacker, Galle Literary Festival, Ian Rankin, Kaveri Lalchand, Malinda Seneviratne, Neluka Silva, Pradeep Jeganathan, Prospect, Rana Dasgupta, Ru Freeman, Sarnath Banerjee, Smriti Daniel, Solo | Comments (0)

(Beer and) Roving on the literary circuit

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Despatches from the Galle Literary Festival (SL Sunday Times).

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Ashok Ferrey, Blaft, Claire Tomalin, David Blacker, Diran Adebayo, Galle Literary Festival, Geoff Dyer, Geoffrey Bawa, hangovers, Ian Rankin, Jehan Mendis, Kaveri Lalchand, Louise Doughty, Malinda Seneviratne, McSweeney's, Michael Frayn, Michael Meyler, Mohammed Hanif, Monica Narula, Neluka Silva, Philip Roth, Pradeep Jeganathan, Rana Dasgupta, Ru Freeman, Sarnath Banerjee, Shyam Selvadurai, Smriti Daniel, Spectator, Sunday Times (SL), Tokyo Cancelled, Ulrik Plesner, Wendy Cope, WG Sebald | Comments (0)