Sri Lankan Archives - BookDragon

The Boat People by Sharon Bala [in Library Journal]

09 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

*STARRED REVIEW In Canadian novelist Sharon Bala’s debut, a 60-meter freighter reaches British Columbia in 2009, carrying 500 survivors of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war. The arrivals are herded into detention centers by a government fearful of terrorists hidden among these "boat people." Mahindran and his six-year-old...

Island of a Thousand Mirrors by Nayomi Munaweera

24 Aug, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Fiction, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

In a house by the sea in Colombo, Sri Lanka, live two families: below are the Sinhala owners, the Rajasinghes with two daughters, Yasodhara and Lanka; upstairs are the Tamil clan of Shivalingams with their son, Shiva, twinned by a shared birthday to Yasodhara. While the...

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

18 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, British, British Asian, Memoir, Nonfiction, South Asian, Sri Lankan

Confession: I started Wave stuck in the ears, but didn't get very far because the narrator seems to have a lisp – which is not a judgment about the reader herself, but my little ears had too challenging a time comprehending each sentence. This is a...

On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman [in Library Journal]

03 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

* STARRED REVIEW As in Ru Freeman’s absorbing 2009 debut, A Disobedient Girl, the intricate lives of young children also take center stage in this latest work. In 1979, the titular Sal Mal Lane is a cul-de-sac on the outskirts of Sri Lanka’s largest city and former...

On Sal Mal Lane by Ru Freeman + Author Interview [in Bookslut]

06 May, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Absolute Favorites, Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

Allow me to start with the simple end: Ru Freeman's On Sal Mal Lane is stupendous. I'll even embellish that verdict and add that it is actually fan-huththa-tastic...

The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje

04 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian, Canadian Asian Pacific American, European, Fiction, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

With utter certainty, I can claim that I've never ever been remotely disappointed by a Michael Ondaatje title. Until now, alas. Here's my very best advice to you about this, his long-awaited new title, The Cat's Table: read it page by page for yourself only;...

Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje

24 Oct, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Audio, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, South Asian, Sri Lankan

Before I let myself even open Michael Ondaatje's newest title, The Cat's Table, which hit shelves earlier this month, I was determined to read his previous novels that I had somehow missed. The realization that I have now earned access to Table is rather bittersweet as...

At Home with Madhur Jaffrey: Simple, Delectable Dishes from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka by Madhur Jaffrey

14 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Bangladeshi, Indian, Indian American, Nonfiction, Pakistani, Sri Lankan

What perfect timing! Madhur Jaffrey's newest cookbook makes for a toothsome companion to one of last week's posts, Indivisible, the first anthology that brings together contemporary American poets...

Not Quite Paradise: An American Sojourn in Sri Lanka by Adele Barker [in Christian Science Monitor]

30 Dec, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Memoir, Nonethnic-specific, Nonfiction, Repost, Sri Lankan

Three weeks after 9/11, University of Arizona professor Adele Barker arrived in Sri Lanka as a senior Fulbright Scholar to teach Russian literature, feminist literary theory, and American literature to select students at the University of Peradeniya. But her own education about the history and...

A Disobedient Girl by Ru Freeman

24 Jun, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, South Asian, South Asian American, Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan American

Two seemingly disparate stories open this engrossing debut novel. Latha, who enjoys the smaller luxuries of life – bathing with a stolen bar of pink Lux soap – is both servant and best friend to Thara, the only child of the Vithanages with whom the young...

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai + Author Interview [in Bloomsbury Review]

01 Jan, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, Sri Lankan, Young Adult Readers

swimming-monsoon Searching for Home Shyam Selvadurai Debuts Swimming in the Monsoon Sea While ‘home’ today for Shyam Selvadurai is undoubtedly Toronto, Canada, the ‘home’ that he plumbs for his books remains Sri Lanka, where he was born and lived...

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai + Author Interview [in AsianWeek]

18 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Author Interview/Profile, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Repost, South Asian, Sri Lankan, Young Adult Readers

swimming-monsoon Shyam Selvadurai’s ‘Swimming’ Debut While “home” today for Shyam Selvadurai is undoubtedly Toronto, Canada, the “home” that he plumbs for his books remains Sri Lanka, where he was born, and lived there until the age of 19....

Island of Blood: Frontline Reports from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Other South Asian Flashpoints by Anita Pratap [in AsianWeek]

28 Nov, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Afghan, Indian, Nonfiction, Repost, South Asian, Sri Lankan

Island of Blood The paperback edition of an important title that explores the frontline news happening in a complicated, troubled, often misunderstood part of the world where war, terrorism and endless ethnic conflict have ravaged...

The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka [in AsianWeek]

26 Sep, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Fiction, Malaysian, Repost, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Sri Lankan

Rice Mother In another British import of a debut novel, Manicka draws from her own history to create a family saga of four generations and 70 years. At the family’s core is its matriarch, Lakshmi, who...

Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai [in What Do I Read Next? Multicultural Literature]

02 Mar, by Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center in Adult Readers, Canadian Asian Pacific American, Fiction, Repost, South Asian American, Sri Lankan

Funny Boy Arjie, a young boy growing up in an upper-middle-class family in Sri Lanka, is "funny" – he prefers to dress in saris and play with the girls. He comes of age amidst a time...

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