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Shehan Karunatilaka is a Sri Lankan writer. He grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore
Unpleasant truths await a Sri Lankan president in the back of a London cab. An advertising agency has to come to terms with a blown-up collection of pictures of its employees' penises. A man presumed missing, quietly journals by the sea. A being dispassionately recalls the numerous births it had taken and absurd fates it had to endure. An Englishman, a Dutchman and a Portuguese man walk into a Ceylon bar with grand narcotic designs.A masterful blend of dry wit, morbid charm and earnest observations, Booker-shortlisted author Shehan Karunatilaka's The Birth Lottery and Other Surprises is a collection of fantastic short stories that serves up fantasies for both doomsday and everyday, marking the return of one of South Asia's most compelling storytellers.
Praise for Shehan Karunatilaka "As close to a masterpiece as anything to have come out of South Asia in recent years" ~ India Today on Chinaman "Fizzles with energy, imagery, and ideas against a broad, surreal vision of the Sri Lankan civil wars. Slyly, angrily comic." ~ The 2022 Booker Prize Jury on The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida "It is entirely possible that the Great Sri Lankan novel has been written..." ~ Shashi Tharoor on Chinaman
Praise for Shehan Karunatilaka
"As close to a masterpiece as anything to have come out of South Asia in recent years" ~ India Today on Chinaman
"Fizzles with energy, imagery, and ideas against a broad, surreal vision of the Sri Lankan civil wars. Slyly, angrily comic." ~ The 2022 Booker Prize Jury on The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
"It is entirely possible that the Great Sri Lankan novel has been written..." ~ Shashi Tharoor on Chinaman
