Synopses & Reviews
The drivers job is to stay in control behind the wheel and that is all. The past is what you leave as you go. There is nothing more to it.Vasantha retired early, bought himself a van with his savings, and now works as a driver for hire. As he drives through Sri Lanka, carrying aid workers, businessmen, and families and meeting lonely soldiers and eager hoteliers, he engages them with self-deprecating wit and folksy wisdomand reveals for us their uncertain lives.
On his journey from the army camps in northern Jaffna to the moonlit ramparts of Galle, in the south, Vasantha begins to discover the depth of the problems of the pasthis own and his countrysand the promise the future might hold.
From the writer praised by The Guardian for the vivid originality” of his vision, here is a wonderful collectionperceptive, somber, finely tunedthat draws a potent portrait of postwar Sri Lanka and the ghosts of civil war.
Review
Praise for Romesh Gunesekera's previous books:"Monkfish Moon strikes the reader like a hammer blow
Gunesekeras subtly erotic prose animates Sri Lankas natural luxuriance, veined with menace."
—Voice Literary Supplement
"Revelatory and unique."
—The New Yorker
"Full of the uncertain sadness of exiles and dreamers
Gunesekeras characters become memorable emblems of solitude and despair."
—Vogue
"An enchanting, endlessly funny and affecting noveltruly exquisite."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"A sensuous feast of delight, incessantly pleasurable to read
A book to be slowly savoured, page by page."
—The Times (London)
Synopsis
This new book from the leading Sri Lankan writer is a superb collection of interlinked stories, all narrated by Vasantha, who works as a van driver in Sri Lanka, carrying aid workers, businessmen and families, meeting lonely soldiers and eager hoteliers, engaging them with self-deprecating wit and folk wisdom, and revealing their uncertain, difficult lives.
About the Author
Romesh Gunesekera is the author of eight highly acclaimed works, including Reef, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and The Guardian Fiction Prize; The Sandglass, winner of the BBC Asia Award; The Match; and a collection of stories, Monkfish Moon (all available from The New Press). He lives in London.