Promotional Information

Richly rewarding . . . this is a novel that deserves, and will surely gain, a wide readership' Adam Lively, Sunday Times

About the Author

Shyam Selvadurai was born in 1965 in Colombo, Sri Lanka and emigrated to Canada at the age of nineteen after the 1983 riots in Colombo. He has written for television and his fiction and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies. Funny Boy, his first novel, won the W.H.Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and, in the US, the Lambda Literary Award for best Gay Men's Fiction. He lives in Toronto.

Reviews

In 1927 Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Annalukshmi is an ambitious young teacher who longs to escape the traditions of arranged marriages and obedient wives. Balendran, her uncle, is also trapped, caught between duty to his father, the Mudaliyar, and his feelings for Richard, his former lover. In Selvadurai's restrained second novel (following Funny Boy), Annalukshmi and Balendran must each come to terms with tradition and the sacrifices necessary to find the freedom they desperately desire. Selvadurai has created an insulated world of quiet racism and respectable oppression, where members of the Ceylonese upper class employ the same condescension as their British rulers. The story and characters are subtly written; there are no grand confrontations or earthshaking conclusions, which sometimes leaves the reader wanting more. What emerges is an introspective and unobtrusive look at a time and place unfamiliar to most readers. Recommended for large public libraries.ÄEllen Flexman, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

YA-Colombo, Ceylon, in 1927 is a fragrant, lush, and beautiful city. For the Kandiah family-a mother and three young daughters living in a simple bungalow within the exclusive Cinnamon Gardens suburb-it is also politically complex, socially restricting, and heading irreversibly into an unknowable future. The eldest daughter, Annalukshmi, wants to be a teacher-but according to the rules of her time and society, she must relinquish that work if she marries. Negotiating the often-illusory pathways of romantic hopefulness, she ultimately makes some surprisingly mature choices. In counterpoint to Annalukshmi's story is that of her uncle; he loves his wife and his son but continues to struggle with his homosexuality and is thrown into crisis when his old lover arrives in Colombo. Through these characters, and others, the many segments of this diverse colonial society come to life. Readers see how beliefs, values, and personality characteristics determine people's lives and actions-and how those values, though exercised with the best of intentions, can be completely at odds with those of others. In his compassion for his characters, in the telling details of dress and architecture, in the dialogue that captures in a few words the essence of universal issues, Selvadurai shows the genius of a Jane Austen. Yet, with equal adroitness, he portrays the national and international, religious, political, historical, and cultural controversies of a much larger stage. Thoughtful teens can lose themselves in the romanticism of Sri Lanka's past and possibly gain a new understanding of their own time and place.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.