Cinnamon Gardens

Richly rewarding . . . this is a novel that deserves, and will surely gain, a wide readership' Adam Lively, Sunday Times

Shyam Selvadurai was born in 1965 in Colombo, Sri Lanka and emigrated to Canada at the age of nineteen after the 1983 riots in Colombo.  He has written for television and his fiction and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies.  Funny Boy, his first novel, won the W.H.Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and, in the US, the Lambda Literary Award for best Gay Men's Fiction.  He lives in Toronto.

Selvadurai has captured horrifyingly well the airlessness of a society in which only a few are truly able to breathe, and deeply' Mary Loudon, The Times 
 
In Shyam Selvadurai's masterful second novel, set in repressive and complex 1920s Ceylon, the Cinnamon Gardens is a residential enclave of wealthy Ceylonese. Among them is Annalukshmi, an independent and high-spirited young teacher intent on thwarting her parents' plans to arrange her marriage. In a parallel narrative, her uncle, Balendran Navaratnam, respectably married but secretly homosexual, has his life disrupted by the arrival in Ceylon of Richard, a lover from long ago. 
 
'Richly rewarding . . . this is, in many ways, an old-fashioned novel, brimming with old-fashioned virtues. The characters and setting are established in a measured, finely judged manner, allowing us to feel at home with them. Annalukshmi's Jane Austen-ish domestic life -- anxious mother, bossy aunt, catty sisters, endless talk of prospective husbands -- is brought to life with glancing humour. Not least of the novel's virtues is the way he seems to conjure up a whole social panorama. With its vivid evocation of time and place, its wise characterisation, its involving emotional dramas, this is a novel that deserves, and will surely gain, a wide readership' Adam Lively, Sunday Times 
 
'Subtle and deeply humane . . . a fine novel that is both delicately written and very, very wise . . . Selvadurai has established himself firmly as an important chronicler of the complexities of social and cultural difference' Books in Canada 
 
'This is a distinctive voice and the author is a talent to be reckoned with' Telegraph, India

Shyam Selvadurai

An extaordinarily powerful, deeply moving novel

Selvadurai writes as sensitively about the emotional intensity of adolescence as he does about the wonder of childhood

Glittering and wise... Funny Boy keeps repeating that the human condition can, in spite of everything, be joyful. You are not alone, it says to the reader. I understand you. I too was there. I remember

At first sight an innocently observed portrait of Tamil family life in seventies Sri Lanka, it metamorphosed into a lucid, serious piece of writing... Selvadurai's world is delightful, frightening, important and he describes it with touching clarity... His novel is a graceful and intelligent account of the random nature of growing up

The unadorned and simple prose has elegance and great sophistication. Moreover, Selvadurai has a genius for touching a nerve with a feather-light touch... A powerful and beautifully written novel

A Novel in Six Stories

'An extraordinarily powerful, deeply moving novel' Amitav Ghosh 
 
NOW A MAJOR FILM ON NETFLIX 
 
In the world of his large family - affluent Tamils living in Colombo - Arjie is an oddity, a 'funny boy' who prefers dressing as a girl to playing cricket with his brother. 
 
But as Arjie comes to terms with his own homo-sexuality and with the racism of the society in which he lives, Sri Lanka is plunged into civil war as fighting between the army and the Tamil Tigers gradually begins to encroach on the family's comfortable life. Sporadic acts of violence flare into full scale riots and lead, ultimately, to tragedy. 
 
Written in clear, simple prose, Shyam Selvadurai's first novel is masterly in its mingling of the personal and political. 
 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NEEL MUKHERJEE

Shyam Selvadurai

Praise for Funny Boy

An extaordinarily powerful, deeply moving novel

Selvadurai writes as sensitively about the emotional intensity of adolescence as he does about the wonder of childhood

Glittering and wise... Funny Boy keeps repeating that the human condition can, in spite of everything, be joyful. You are not alone, it says to the reader. I understand you. I too was there. I remember

An extaordinarily powerful, deeply moving novel

Selvadurai writes as sensitively about the emotional intensity of adolescence as he does about the wonder of childhood

Glittering and wise... Funny Boy keeps repeating that the human condition can, in spite of everything, be joyful. You are not alone, it says to the reader. I understand you. I too was there. I remember

An extaordinarily powerful, deeply moving novel

Selvadurai writes as sensitively about the emotional intensity of adolescence as he does about the wonder of childhood

Glittering and wise... Funny Boy keeps repeating that the human condition can, in spite of everything, be joyful. You are not alone, it says to the reader. I understand you. I too was there. I remember

Books by Shyam Selvadurai

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter