Shehan Karunatilaka won this year’s Gratiaen Prize with his novel “Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew.”
Named after a bowling technique, the book follows the life of an eccentric, alcoholic sports writer, who decides to devote the last few months of his life to tracking down the man he considers one of the country’s greatest cricket players – Pradeep Mathew.
Shehan himself was once no slouch in the bowling department, but has since then moved on to writing lyrics for Independence Square, basslines for his bandPowercut Circus and when he can spare the time, ads and radio spots for several advertising companies.
His first novel, The Painter, was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2000, but was never published. You can read excerpts of his writing at www.shehanwriter.com
What are you reading right now?
Sum by David Eagleman. Just picked it up because it was light and had a nice cover. I’m halfway through it and it could be the best book I’ve ever read.
What’s it about?
It’s 40 tales of what the afterlife could look like. The prose is dazzling and filled with big ideas. In one chapter your afterlife is spent being an extra in other people’s dreams, in another you sit in a room until your name is spoken for the last time on earth, in another you’re bacteria on the toe of a goddess. Wonderful stuff.
Is there a book you have always wanted to read but have never actually ended up reading?
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen. To my surprise I found out that I’m mostly homosexual in my reading habits. So I now have a list of girly books to read. This one’s at the top, but it may get overtaken by Bridget Jones.
Give us a name of a book that was so bad that you couldn’t get past the first ten pages?
Ulysses - James Joyce. I ain’t saying the greatest book of the 20th century is ‘bad’, but it does give me a pain between the eyes by page 7. The only other book that did that to me was by a local author. But I’ll stick with my first answer. James Joyce doesn’t know where I live.
Where and when do you most like to read?
On chairs, under blankets, in trees, near lakes. Afternoons, evenings, mornings. Sometimes nights.
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