 First edition cover (publ. Doubleday Canada) | |
| Author | Shyam Selvadurai |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Doubleday Canada |
Publication date | January 1, 2012 |
| ISBN | 978-0-385-67066-1 |
The Hungry Ghosts is a 2013 novel written by Shyam Selvadurai and published by Doubleday Canada.
| First edition cover (publ. Doubleday Canada) | |
| Author | Shyam Selvadurai |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Doubleday Canada |
Publication date | January 1, 2012 |
| ISBN | 978-0-385-67066-1 |
The Hungry Ghosts is a 2013 novel written by Shyam Selvadurai and published by Doubleday Canada.
"The Hungry Ghosts" by Shyam Selvadurai is set between Toronto, Ontario in the 2010s and Colombo, Sri Lanka, during the 1980s and early 1990s. It has a non-linear timeline. It centres on Shivan Rassiah, a young gay man of mixed Tamil and Sinhalese descent, living in Canada. He is preparing to fly to Colombo to retrieve his infirm grandmother and bring her to live in Toronto. His grandmother, the respected matriarch of their family, is very conservative, cunning, and attached to her wealth and property in Colombo. She also strongly disapproves of Shivan's homosexuality. The reader follows Shivan on his travels, as he struggles to make sense of his memories of his youth in Sri Lanka, while also trying to reconcile it with his current life in Canada, which has not proven to be the safe-haven his family imagined when fleeing their home decades earlier. [1] [2]
The Hungry Ghosts received largely positive reviews. For the Globe and Mail , Hasanthika Sirisena writes, "All of Selvadurai's characters are nuanced with motivations that stem not from their political or ethnic roles, but from raw human longing", and "Selvadurai's work reminds me that the contemporary novel doesn't necessarily have to resort to thrills or high jinks in order to find its usefulness". [3] For Quill and Quire , Steph VanderMeulen writes, "The novel’s non-linear structure is (perhaps intentionally) disorienting... Nevertheless, The Hungry Ghosts is an accomplished, resonant novel." [2] In Now , Susan G. Cole praises the novel: "It’s taken the Sri Lankan-Canadian author 10 years to deliver this, his third novel. It was definitely worth the wait.” [4]
The Hungry Ghosts was a national bestseller.[ citation needed ]
| Year | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Governor General's Award for English-language fiction | Shortlist | [5] |
| 2014 | DSC Prize for South Asian Literature | Longlist | [6] [7] |
| 2014 | Toronto Book Awards | Shortlist | [8] |
Philip Michael Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer and essayist.
Shyam Selvadurai is a Sri Lankan Canadian novelist. He is most noted for his 1994 novel Funny Boy, which won the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the main political parties of Sri Lanka. It was founded by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1951 and has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena since. It first came to power in 1956 and has served as the predominant ruling party on a number of occasions. It is currently the third largest party in the Parliament of Sri Lanka after the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the Samagi Jana Balawegaya.
The Donoughmore Commission (DC) was responsible for the creation of the Donoughmore Constitution in effect between 1931 and 1947 in Ceylon. In 1931 there were approximately 12% Ceylonese Tamils, 12% Indian Tamils, 65% Sinhalese, and ~3% Ceylon Moors. The British government had introduced a form of communal representation which a strong Tamil representation, out of proportion to the population of the Tamil community. The Sinhalese had been divided into up-country and low-country Sinhalese.
Sri Lankan Canadians refers to people from Sri Lanka who have arrived and settled in Canada. Among these immigrants include members from the Tamil, Moor, Malay, Sinhalese and Burgher ethnicities. According to the 2021 census there are 136,240 Sri Lankan-born persons in Canada.
Funny Boy is a coming-of-age novel by Sri Lankan-Canadian author Shyam Selvadurai. First published by McClelland and Stewart in September 1994, the novel won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and the Books in Canada First Novel Award.
Maithripala Yapa Sirisena is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the seventh President of Sri Lanka from 9 January 2015 to 18 November 2019. Sirisena is Sri Lanka's first president from the North Central Province of the country and does not belong to the traditional Sri Lankan political elite. He is currently a member of parliament from Polonnaruwa.
Tamil Canadians, or Canadian Tamils, are Canadians of Tamil ethno-linguistic origin. Much of Canada's Tamil diaspora from India and Sri Lanka then majority consist of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who sought to flee the ethnic tensions during the Sri Lankan Civil War between the 1970s and 2000s, while economic Tamil migrants also originate from India, Singapore and other parts of South Asia.
Palitha Kumara Thewarapperuma was a Sri Lankan politician who served as a United National Party member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka for the Kalutara District between 2010 and 2020. He served as the Deputy Minister of Social Empowerment, Deputy Minister of Sustainable Development, Wildlife and Regional Development and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Wayamba Development and Cultural Affairs during the Presidency of Maithripala Sirisena.
The Kala Keerthi is a Sri Lankan national honour awarded "for extraordinary achievements and contributions in arts, culture and drama". It is the highest national honour for arts, culture and drama in Sri Lanka. It is conventionally used as a title or prefix to the awardee's name. Kala Keerthi ranks lower than Vidya Jyothi.
Pallewatta Gamaralalage Kumarasinghe Sirisena, sometimes known as P. G. Kumarasinghe, is a Sri Lankan business executive and former Group Chairman of Sri Lanka Telecom. He is the younger brother of the former President of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena.
Hirunika Eranjali Premachandra Yattowita better known as Hirunika Premachandra is a member of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya. She is a former Member of the Sri Lankan Parliament from the United National Party and a former member of the Western Provincial Council. Born to Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, Hirunika was educated at Visakha Vidyalaya.
Angajan Ramanathan is a Sri Lankan Tamil politician, former provincial councillor and Member of Parliament. He is the current Deputy chairman of committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.
Kala Keerthi Suminda Sirisena was an actor in Sri Lankan cinema, theatre and television. A highly versatile actor, Sirisena played a wide range of starring or supporting roles and was a recipient of the Best Actor award at many award festivals.
Bulathsinghalage Sirisena Cooray, JP was a Sri Lankan politician.
Funny Boy is a 2020 drama film, directed by Deepa Mehta. An adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai's 1994 novel of the same name, the film centres on the coming of age of Arjie Chelvaratnam, a young Tamil boy in Sri Lanka who is coming to terms with his homosexuality against the backdrop of the increased tensions between Tamil and Sinhalese people before the breakout of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Mansions of the Moon is a 2022 novel written by Shyam Selvadurai and published by Penguin Random House Canada.
Swimming in the Monsoon Sea is a coming-of-age novel written by Shyam Selvadurai set in Sri Lanka in 1980, during the monsoon season. Fourteen-year-old Amrith lives a contented life with his lively Auntie Bundle and gentle Uncle Lucky, avoiding thoughts of his past when his loving mother was still alive. He hopes to spend his vacation performing in his school's production of Othello and is learning to type at Uncle Lucky's tropical fish business. However, his routine is abruptly disrupted when his cousin arrives from Canada, bringing an unexpected whirlwind into his life. Amrith finds himself falling in love with the Canadian boy, paralleling the intense themes of jealousy in Othello, which serve as a backdrop to Amrith's own emotional upheaval.
Cinnamon Gardens is a 1998 novel written by Shyam Selvadurai.