Novels

Author, Publisher Ameena Hussein has two collections of short stories to her name – ZILLIJ which won State Literary Award and FIFTEEN which was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize. Her novel MOON IN THE WATER was long listed for both the Man Asian Prize and the Dublin IMPAC Award. She has numerous published essays and has compiled three collections of stories for children which are approved by the Ministry of Education for School Libraries: MILK RICE 1, MILK RICE 2 and VAMPIRE UMPIRE. She also compiled a collection of 'naughty stories' for an adult readership titled BLUE.

Longlisted for the Man Asia Literary Prize 2008 and the Dublin IMPAC award 2011

Khadeeja Rasheed has the perfect life in Geneva. A loving family, a fulfilling career, and an adoring boyfriend. When her father is accidentally killed in a bomb blast she returns home to Sri Lanka. There she discovers a secret that threatens to destroy family bonds and reveal complicated threads of love, loyalty, and betrayal. The Moon in the Water brings a young woman's search for recognition and family vividly to life.

In this story of deep desires, identity and passion, Ameena Hussein draws a dramatic portrait of loss, bewildering love and possible forgiveness.

Chandani Lokugé is an Associate Professor at Monash University. She read for her doctoral degree on a Commonwealth Scholarship. She is the author of nine books. As the Editor of the scholarly Oxford Classics Reissues series of pioneering Indian women's writing in English, she has published six books including, The Collected Prose and Poetry of Toru Dutt and The Memories of Cornelia Sorabji: India's First Woman Barrister. Her current academic research is on the aesthetics of South Asian diasporic literature.

Read an excerpt!

But he was lying there beside her, waiting for her answer. A stranger. They were strangers.

She turned slowly away from him, towards the window. And against the bright blue sky, she saw the storks flying away in formation, an arrow in the sky. They'd started their long journey at last, back to their other home. They'd dared to dream again. And roam the skies for something they'd loved and lost, perhaps.

'Perhaps,' she said turning back.

In poetic vignettes set against the fascinating exotics of Australia and France, Chandani Lokugé weaves a haunting and meditative story on the spectral gains and losses of travel, the nature of its transience. Through it, she dignifies with grace and tenderness, our unassuageable yearning, when we have lost everything and even ourselves, to anchor to something, someone, somewhere, and the unexpected moment of our arrival.

"A haunting, mystical reading experience, suffused with history, art, and recovery from trauma. An inspired travelogue... the damaged genius of Van Gogh brooding over the narrative, with hints of both joy and anguish." - Chris Ringrose

Sunil Tantirige is an Engineer who grew up in Sri Lanka and now lives and works in Toronto, Canada. This is his first attempt at storytelling.

Sri Lanka conjures images of an island of incredible beauty,

a tropical paradise of golden beaches, mist-shrouded mountains carpeted with tea fields, 2000-year-old cities and archaeological monuments - a land of apparent peace and tranquility. It also evokes a brutal, thirty-year civil war, riven with death, destruction, and racial divides.

Here is a story of a boy growing up in Sri Lanka in the midst of all that beauty and in the run-up to those bitter times. It paints a picture at once familiar and unexpected, with storytelling that is revealing, deeply personal, funny, and sometimes emotional. 

Today, young minds are often spent immersed in virtual worlds where long conversations are a thing of the past. To pass on his family history from generation to generation, a migrant father from Sri Lanka writes a record of his family for his son who grew up in Canada. This book is written as a gift to his son and posterity before the story is lost to the shifting sands of time. 

This is a tale that brings back memories and nostalgia, it is a tale that you will not expect, one that will surprise and charm you.

Yasmin Azad was born and raised in the Galle Fort, Sri Lanka. After obtaining a degree in English from the University of Ceylon, and a brief stint as a lecturer, she moved to the United States in her twenties. She recently retired after many years as a mental health counselor.

There comes a time when a girl must decide whether to leave or stay. This is the journey to that moment of choice.

Within the confines of the Galle Fort, Yasmin and her best friend Penny enjoy an idyllic childhood of sea swims, bike rides, and movies in a world that was fun, glamorous and free. But Yasmin comes from a tightly knit, conformist community that thrives on tradition, family bonds and honour, and eventually her friendship with Penny must end.

This sharply insightful novel depicts a young Muslim girl's struggle to balance the traditions of a loving yet conservative father, who wants to keep her safe, against the more liberal Westernized Sri Lankan world outside. Stay, Daughter is a beautifully crafted story suffused with love, humour, and compassion. A novel that provides a glimpse into the microcosmic Galle Fort Muslim community of the 1960s post-independent Sri Lanka.

A unique and important voice of our time - that of Muslim women.