Romesh Gunesekera
Monkfish Moon
Monkfish Moon is a collection of nine haunting stories. Written with startling
grace, together they create a compelling picture of Sri Lanka, a country of teeming natural beauty and a society in turmoil.
A New York Times Notable Book for 1993.
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Reviews
'Gunesekera's language has a simple surface-but the simplicity is deceptive; his observation is as close as the stare of a voyeur.' - Independent
'Strikes the reader like a hammer blow...Gunesekera's subtly erotic prose animates Sri Lanka's natural luxuriance, veined with menace...'- Voice Literary Supplement
'Tropic lushness burgeons from every cranny of these stories...there are spice gardens, flame trees, frangipani and hibiscus hedges. But all this merely seems a luscious veil behind which violence and viciousness hide...Graceful and grim, [these stories] constitute carefully civilized bulletins on barbarity's reverberations.' - Sunday Times
'The most startling aspect of this evocative book is how distinct one tale proves from another. These sad, spare stories illustrate the shocking fragility of the whole modern world.' - New York Times Book Review
'Full of the uncertain sadness of exiles and dreamers...Gunesekera's characters become memorable emblems of solitude and despair...[His] prose pulses with precision, without stridency or showiness...Monkfish Moon shows signs of rapid development, from the almost childlike simplicity of "Storm Petrel" to the extraordinary sylistic sophistication of "Straw Hurts.' - Vogue
'Gunesekera has a finely honed descriptive pen, and each page is vivid with atmosphere and sensations, bringing alive the tropical island. The tension of ethnic strife is palpable...his stories resonate, haunt you with elusive truths he never named.' - India Today