Romesh Gunesekera – författare

As a teenager from Sri Lanka, Sunny liked to play cricket. But none of his new friends in Manila were remotely interested. That is until the gorgeous Tina arrived, all poise and perfection. Three decades on, Sunny is settled in London with a teenage son of his own. But despite the quiet comfort of his life, he feels unmoored. Trying to reconnect with his past, he goes to watch the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team play at the Oval. As the sun goes down at the end of the match he realises that love, like cricket, is more than just a game. He sees one last chance to get his life into focus, if only there is time.

Lucy Gladwell arrives in Mauritius from England to live with her aunt and uncle at their grand plantation house. Under the surface of this beautiful island paradise, poised between India and Africa, there is unease, and Lucy cannot help but feel discomfited by the restrictions she sees around her, and by the strangely attractive Don Lambodar, a young translator from Ceylon. It is 1825: the age of slavery is coming to its messy end, and word is lapping against the shores of the island of a charismatic new Indian leader who will shine the light of liberty. For Lucy, for Don, for everyone on the island, a devastating storm is coming...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 JHALAK PRIZE1964. Ceylon is on the brink of change. But Kairo is at a loose end. School is closed, the government is in disarray, the press is under threat and the religious right are flexing their muscles. Kairo’s hard-working mother blows off steam at her cha-cha-cha classes; his Trotskyite father grumbles over the state of the nation between his secret flutters on horseraces in faraway England. All Kairo wants to do is hide in his room and flick over second-hand westerns and superhero comics, or escape on his bicycle and daydream. Then he meets the magnetic teenage Jay, and his whole world is turned inside out. A budding naturalist and a born rebel, Jay keeps fish and traps birds for an aviary he is building in the garden of his grand home. The adults in Jay's life have no say in what he does or where he goes: he holds his beautiful, fragile mother in contempt, and his wealthy father seems fuelled by anger. But his Uncle Elvin, suave and worldly, is his encourager. As Jay guides him from the realm of make believe into one of hunting-guns and fast cars and introduces him to a girl — Niromi — Kairo begins to understand the price of privilege and embarks on a journey of devastating consequence. Taut and luminous, graceful and wild, Suncatcher is a poignant coming-of-age novel about difficult friendships and sudden awakenings. Mesmerizingly it charts the loss of innocence and our recurring search for love — or consolation — bringing these extraordinary lives into our own.

Packed with tips from bestselling and prize-winning authors, Novel Writing: A Writers' and Artists' Companion will give you all the practical advice you need to write and publish your novel. PART 1 provides an introduction to the forms and history of the novel and helps you plan and research your masterpiece, develop characters and compelling narratives and your own authorial voice. PART 2 contains guest contributions from Philip Pullman, Louise Doughty, Glenn Patterson, Jeanette Winterson, Jonathan Franzen, Stevie Davies, Doris Lessing, Tash Aw, Elif Shafak, Anne Enright, Tim Pears, Anita Desai, Tim Lott, Amit Chaudhuri, Andrea Levy, Alan Hollinghurst, Bernardo Atxaga, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Michèle Roberts, Joan Brady, Lynn Freed, Evelyn Toynton as well as a number of the 2013 list of the Best of Young British Novelists including Kamila Shamsie, Tamima Anam, Naomi Alderman, Ned Beauman, Jenni Fagan and Joanna Kavenna. PART 3 offers practical advice on collaborative writing, overcoming writer's block, editing and rewriting and finding an agent and a publisher for your work. Written by two multi-award winning authors, this is a comprehensive manual for established and aspiring novelists alike.

'A work of strange, slow-motion, underwater intensity. Put your ear to the page and you can almost hear the ocean whisper' IndependentA single lighted match banishes Triton from his father's home to the employ of Mister Salgado, a marine biologist obsessed by swamps, sea movements and a Sri Lankan island's disappearing reef. Stranded in London years later, Triton plumbs the depths of his childhood memories - a period of brewing political, ethical and religious turmoil - and brings us to understand how he has navigated this brave new world, which once lost will haunt him forever.

The Sandglass tells the story of two feuding families whose lives are interlinked by the changing fortunes of postcolonial Sri Lanka. Moving back and forth between London and Sri Lanka, the novel brings to life Prins Ducal and his search for answers about his family's past, including his father's rise to wealth, rivalry with the Vatunas family, and a suspicious death - a mystery that further unfolds upon Prins's arrival in London for his mother's funeral. Re-printed by Granta in a beautiful new edition.

Marc, in search of a dream, leaves London and sets out for the island where his grandfather was born and where his father's plane was shot down in flames. It is an island once said to be near the edge of heaven, but now ravaged and despoiled by war. There by a glittering lake he sees the subversive Uva, an eco-warrior releasing emerald doves. Finding her launches him into a world of passion and difficult choices. But their affair is cut short when she disappears. Desperate to find her, Marc embarks on a final terrifying journey that will test all his beliefs as he confronts violence in a quest for love.