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Fiction Gay

Funny Boy

Penguin Modern Classics Edition

by (author) Shyam Selvadurai

Publisher
McClelland & Stewart
Initial publish date
Aug 2019
Category
Gay, Family Life, Classics
  • Audio cassette

    ISBN
    9780864922625
    Publish Date
    Sep 1998
    List Price
    $16.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780771079511
    Publish Date
    Oct 1997
    List Price
    $22.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780771001758
    Publish Date
    Aug 2019
    List Price
    $22.00

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Description

In this remarkable debut novel, a boy’s bittersweet passage to maturity and sexual awakening is set against escalating political tensions in Sri Lanka, during the seven years leading up to the 1983 riots. Arjie Chelvaratnam is a Tamil boy growing up in an extended family in Colombo. It is through his eyes that the story unfolds and we meet a delightful, sometimes eccentric cast of characters. Arjie’s journey from the luminous simplicity of childhood days into the more intricately shaded world of adults – with its secrets, its injustices, and its capacity for violence – is a memorable one, as time and time again the true longings of the human heart are held against the way things are.

About the author

Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and came to Canada with his family at the age of nineteen. He has studied creative writing and theatre and has a B.F.A. from York University. His first novel, "Funny Boy", became a national bestseller, won the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award as well as the Lamda Literary Award, and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association. His next novel, "Cinnamon Gardens", was shortlisted for the Trillium Award, and has been published in the United States, United Kingdom, India and across Europe. Selvadurai lives in Toronto.

Shyam Selvadurai's profile page

Awards

  • Nominated, Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best Book (Canada & Caribbean)
  • Nominated, Scotiabank Giller Prize

Editorial Reviews

“Shyam Selvadurai has brought back from his Sri Lankan childhood a glittering and wise novel. Funny Boy keeps repeating with quiet conviction that the human condition can, in spite of everything, be joyful. You are not alone, it says to the reader I understand you. I was there. I remember.”
–Alberto Manguel

“He spins a subtle web that holds readers captive.”
Saskatoon StarPhoenix

“A powerful and beautifully written novel.”
Literary Review (U.K.)

“Lyrical, moving, and deeply perceptive. This isn’t the first coming-of-age story ever written, but I doubt there’s been one quite like it.”
Halifax Chronicle-Herald

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