Sri Lankan novelist Nihal de Silva died before he could finish his last novel, Arathi.
Sri Lankan novelist and avid naturalist Nihal de Silva was killed tragically in a landmine explosion in 2006 in Wilpattu National Park. His first novel The Road from Elephant Pass won the Gratiean Award instituted by Sri Lanka-born novelist Michael Ondaatje) in 2003. De Silva also won the state literary award “for writing courageously about political parasites and their terminal torture of a nation and its helpless masses”.
The plot
His last book Arathi, launched at the London Book Fair in April, is dedicated “to the poor in Sri Lanka marginalised and suffering, on whose behalf so many have done…. so little...”
With a powerful and disconcerting first-person narrative, Arathi tells a gripping story of arms dealers, betrayals, murder and terrorism. Jehan Yatawara, a young executive in an advertising agency Target, acquires a second-hand IBM ThinkPad. Jehan runs into a mysterious programme “Thiara” and struggles to find a password to unravel it. When he finds it, Jehan is shocked by the entries made by the previous owner.
Full report here Hindu
Showing posts with label unfinished novel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label unfinished novel. Show all posts
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Competition to complete landmine victim's novel
Perhaps for the first time in the world, a Sri Lankan publisher is offering a reward to provide the ending to an unfinished novel. Author Nihal de Silva was working on his new novel Arathi when he was killed in a terrorist landmine explosion in Sri Lanka three years ago.
Publisher Vijitha Yapa has now published the unfinished novel and is offering a reward of £500 in a competition being held where anyone who provides a satisfactory ending will be rewarded. The unfinished book has been published and will be launched at the London Book Fair at the Sri Lanka Books Stall on Monday, April 19.
The novel is woven around a gamut of tenders, the underworld, arms dealing, betrayals and murder. It was left unfinished just as another unfinished murder mystery of the past, The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens. Supplying a conclusion to the famous predecessor has occupied writers from the time of Dickens's death to the present day.
Full report here DNA
Publisher Vijitha Yapa has now published the unfinished novel and is offering a reward of £500 in a competition being held where anyone who provides a satisfactory ending will be rewarded. The unfinished book has been published and will be launched at the London Book Fair at the Sri Lanka Books Stall on Monday, April 19.
The novel is woven around a gamut of tenders, the underworld, arms dealing, betrayals and murder. It was left unfinished just as another unfinished murder mystery of the past, The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens. Supplying a conclusion to the famous predecessor has occupied writers from the time of Dickens's death to the present day.
Full report here DNA
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