When I told Sakura of Chasing Bawa that I was travelling to Sri Lanka she kindly came up with a list of books and authors of Sri Lankan origin to read or look out for while on holiday. I thought I would share it with my fellow book-lovers!
- Shyam Selvadurai – Funny Boy
; Cinnamon Gardens
- Romesh Gunasekara – Reef
; The Match
- Michael Ondaatje – Anil’s Ghost
; Running in the Family
- V.V. Ganeshananthan – Love Marriage
- Michelle de Kretser – The Hamilton Case
- Roma Tearne – Mosquito
- Nihal de Silva – The Road from Elephant Pass
- Ashok Ferrey – Colpetty People; The good little Ceylonese girl
- Yasmin Gooneratne
- Jean Arasanayagam
- Karl Muller
I plan to buy Anil’s Ghost, by Michael Ondaatje (who is better known for The English Patient) and while I was visiting the Barefoot Bookshop in Columbo I also picked up a copy of The Road from Elephant Pass which I am looking forward to reading.
Thanks again to Sakura for the recommendations – they gave me a good excuse (not that I really need one…), to go book-shopping while holiday. She has written reviews of quite a few of these books over at her blog so do pop over and take a look.
Do you, like me, enjoy reading books about the country you are travelling to when you go on holiday?
Novel Insights 
I love reading about book from the country I’m in or going to, Polly. I have a stack full of French books (in English, au naturellement) ‘cos I seem to go there quite often and love reading about France. When I went to China my suitcase was full of books set in China and a pair of flip-flops and that was about it.
Sounds like you took the essentials to me!
Hello Friend Thanks for the information.
Pleasure, Polly! Looking forward to hearing what you think of The Road to Elephant Pass and Anil’s Ghost. Like you, I always feel the urge to read about the country I’m going to visit just to get an insight. I came back from Paris almost 2 weeks ago but I’m still reading French books (but in English. I wish my French was better!)
I’ve read both Funny Boy and Cinnamon Gardens and liked them both a lot.
I ve amil ghost on my tbr pile ,and really enjoyed reef when I read it a couple of years ago ,all the best stu
Thanks for stopping by. I’m definitely going to have to get a few from this list I think.
If you like to go into the history of Sri Lanka and the battles and tryumphs of the Kandyan kings and what led to the defeat of Lanka to the British, read the Last Kingdom of Singalaya by Elmo Jayawardena. Its a massive book but written as a beautiful story that is easy to read and understand.
Thanks for the other lists and recommendation. I’ve read most but not all!!