Suncatcher: Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2020

By Romesh Gunesekera

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 JHALAK PRIZE

1964. 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Nov 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781526610393

Romesh Gunesekera

Romesh Gunesekera is the author of many acclaimed works of fiction including Reef, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Sandglass, winner of the inaugural BBC Asia Award, and The Match, the ground-breaking cricket novel. His debut collection of stories, Monk?sh Moon, was a New York Times Notable Book. His last book Noontide Toll captured a vital moment in post-war Sri Lanka. His fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages and he is the recipient of many awards including a Premio Mondello in Italy. He was born in Colombo and lives in London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. www.romeshgunesekera.com

Reviews for Suncatcher

[steve38 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A nostalgic tale of growing up in post colonial Sri Lanka. Two boys make friends. One slightly older than the other. One from a more or less convential middle class family the other from a rich family of eccentrics. As they make friends and explore the world clouds gather on the horizon for newly independent Sri Lanka. Trouble of a more personal sort gathers in the background for the boys. They change with age and circumstances just as does their country. A niggle at the back of my mind makes me wonder whether Mr Gunesekera has used Michael Ondaatje and his memoirs of his rich and exotically eccentric family as an inspiration for one of his characters. One novelist putting another in his book maybe?