Shehan Karunatilaka

Shehan Karunatilaka is a Sri Lankan writer most notable for his book Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. which won the Commonwealth Prize, the DSC Prize, the Gratiaen Prize and was adjudged the 2nd greatest cricket book of all time by Wisden.

Shehan Karunatilaka
BornColombo, Sri Lanka
OccupationWriter, Creative Director
NationalitySri Lankan
Period2000 to present
Genrenovels
SubjectSri Lankan society
Notable worksChinaman
Website
www.shehanwriter.com

Biography

Shehan Karunatilaka was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, He grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore.

Before publishing his debut novel, he worked in advertising at McCann, Iris and BBDO, and has also writes features for The Guardian, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, GQ, National Geographic, Conde Nast, Wisden, The Cricketer and the Economic Times. He has played bass with Sri Lankan rock bands Independent Square and Powercut Circus[1] and the Brass Monkey Band.

He was educated at S. Thomas' Preparatory School, Kollupitiya, Sri Lanka, Wanganui Collegiate School and Massey University, Palmerston North.

Novels

His first manuscript, The Painter, was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2000, but was never published.

Chinaman

His debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, uses cricket as a device to write about Sri Lankan history.[2] It tells the story of an alcoholic journalist's quest to track down a missing Sri Lankan cricketer of the 1980s.

Plot

The story is described as “part-tragedy, part-comedy, part-mystery and part-drunken-memoir.” It is set in Sri Lanka in 1999, fresh after a world cup victory and in the throes of a civil war that will continue for another decade. Most of the action takes place “on Colombo’s streets, at cricket matches, in strange houses and in dodgy bars.”

The story's narrator is retired sports journalist, WG Karunasena, who has done little with his 64 years, other than drink arrack and watch Sri Lankan cricket. When informed by doctors of his liver problems, WG decides to track down the greatest thing he has ever seen, Pradeep Mathew, left-arm spinner for Sri Lanka during the late 80s.

Awards

The book was critically hailed, winning many awards. On 21 May 2012, Chinaman was announced as the regional winner for Asia of the Commonwealth Book Prize[3] and went on to win the overall Commonwealth Book Prize announced on 8 June.[4] It also won the 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and the 2008 Gratiaen Prize.[1] Published to great acclaim in India and the UK, the book was one of the Waterstones 11 selected by British bookseller Waterstones as one of the top debuts of 2011 and was also shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Novel Prize.

In 2015, a Sinhala language translation by Dileepa Abeysekara was published as Chinaman: Pradeep Mathewge Cricket Pravadaya.[5]

In 2019, it was voted the 2nd greatest cricket book ever by Wisden.

Chats With The Dead

His second novel, Chats With The Dead, is a black comedy about ghosts and was published in 2020 by Pengun India.

Set against the backdrop of the civil war, the story chronicles the challenges and ethical dilemmas of a war photographer tasked to solve his own murder mystery. Chats with the Dead is a story of a ghost trapped navigating the afterlife and coming to terms with his life, his work, his relationships and his death.

Structured as a whodunit, the story follows renegade war photographer Maali Almeida, who is tasked with solving his own murder. Embroiled in red tape, memories of war, his own ethical dilemmas, and his awkward relationship with his mother, his official girlfriend and his secret boyfriend Maali is constantly interrupted by the overly chatty dead folks breezing through the afterlife, as he struggles to unravel his own death.

The author set the book in 1989, as this was when “The Tigers, The Army, The Indian peacekeepers, The JVP terrorists and State death squads were all killing each other at a prolific rate.” A time of curfews, bombs, assassinations, abductions and mass graves seemed to the author to be “a perfect setting for a ghost story, a detective tale or a spy thriller. Or all three.”

Children’s Books

Initially conceived as a story for his son, Please Don't Put That In Your Mouth marked the first formal collaboration between Shehan and his artist/illustrator brother, Lalith Karunatilaka, though Lalith had sketched the ball diagrams from Chinaman and the cover of Chats With The Dead.

Speaking to LiveMint, the Author commented: “I have experienced many traumatic moments involving toddlers eating dangerous things. My daughter once mistook a wet paint brush for an ice cream and started licking it. My son is known to pick up dead insects and munch on them. I intended to write a cautionary tale, but silliness overtook it.”[6]

Influences

Speaking to The Nation in 2013, Shehan Karunatilaka described his influences as: “Kurt Vonnegut, William Goldman, Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins and a few hundred others.”[7]

He has also written and spoken of his about his lifelong obsession with The Police.[8]

Future Projects

Shehan is currently at work on two more children's books, a short story collection and hopes to begin a novel that “hopefully won’t take 10 years."[9]

Awards and honours
  • 2019: Wisden, Best Cricket Book Ever, 2nd place, Chinaman
  • 2012: Commonwealth Book Prize, overall winner, Chinaman
  • 2012: DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, overall winner, Chinaman
  • 2008: Gratiaen Prize, winner, Chinaman
  • 2000: Gratiaen Prize, shortlist, The Painter

Shortlists
  • 2017: Gratiaen Prize Shortlist, Short Eats (Unpublished Short Fiction)
  • 2015: Gratiaen Prize Shortlist, Devil Dance (Unpublished Novel)
  • 2008: Shakthi Bhatt Award, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew
  • 2000: Gratiaen Prize Shortlist, The Painter (Unpublished Novel)

References
  1. The Sunday Times, "Shehan’s winning googly", accessed 12 February 2011.
  2. Hindustan Times, "Spin on a yarn" Archived 19 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine accessed 12 February 2011.
  3. Commonwealth Book Prize & Commonwealth Short Story Prize Regional Winners 2012. Archived 25 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Alison Flood (8 June 2012). "Shehan Karunatilaka wins 2012 Commonwealth book prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
  5. Diogenes Publishing.
  6. Ghoshal, Somak (15 June 2019). "Meet Baby Baba and his maker". Livemint. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  7. "Karunatilaka: A Novelist Par Excellence". The Nation. 30 March 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  8. "Shehan Writer - Features". www.shehanwriter.com. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  9. Karunatalika, Shehan (7 February 2020). "From the Spectral Island". Open The Magazine. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
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