SRI LANKA, FICTION

Funny Boy
Shyam Selvadurai

Selvadurai's 1994 debut novel follows Arjie, a young Sri Lankan boy growing up in Colombo with his wealthy, Tamil family just before the start of the Sri Lankan civil war. As Arjie grows through-out the novel, the political and personal are deeply connected as he navigates his queerness and what it means to be almost a man in Sri Lankan society. However, Funny Boy is more than just a queer coming-of-age story as it navigates the racial, patriarchal and classist tensions of growing up whilst your home country is on the brink of war. 

This book is a must-read for anyone travelling, or preparing to travel, through Sri Lanka. Reading 'Funny Boy' on a bus from Kandy to Tissamaharama, Selvadurai transported me to the streets of Colombo in the late 1980s and the slowly escalating tensions between the Tamil and Sinhalese populations. Through the eyes of a young Arjie, the book is an intimate and emotionally sensitive exploration of what it means to try and understand yourself and the people around you when everyone is trying to erase your personhood. There is no other book that can quite explain personal, family and Sri Lankan identity as vulnerably as this. 

Recommended by Tiana Sixsmith who was last in Sri Lanka in 2024.
Follow Tiana's reading and travels here.