Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, Shyam Selvadurai
Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, Shyam Selvadurai
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Swimming in the Monsoon Sea

Author: Shyam Selvadurai

Narrator: Rehan Mudannayake

Unabridged: 7 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tundra Books

Published: 06/21/2022


Synopsis

Amrith comes to terms with his sexuality in this sweeping coming-of-age story set against the stormy backdrop of monsoon season in 1980s Sri Lanka. For fans of Call Me By Your Name.

Shyam Selvadurai’s brilliant novels, Funny Boy and Cinnamon Gardens, have garnered him international acclaim. In his first young adult novel, now with a new cover, he explores first love with clarity, humor and compassion.
 
The setting is Sri Lanka, 1980, and it is the season of monsoons. Fourteen-year-old Amrith is caught up in the life of the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Auntie Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life “before,” when his doting mother was still alive. Amrith’s holiday plans seem unpromising: he wants to appear in his school’s production of Othello and he is learning to type at Uncle Lucky’s tropical fish business. Then, like an unexpected monsoon, his cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith’s ordered life is storm-tossed. He finds himself falling in love with the Canadian boy. Othello, with its powerful theme of disastrous jealousy, is the backdrop to the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed.

About The Author

SHYAM SELVADURAI was born in 1965 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He came to Canada with his family at the age of nineteen. He has studied creative writing and theater, and has a B.F.A. from York University. Funny Boy, his first novel, was published to immediate acclaim in 1994, was a national bestseller, and won the W. H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award and, in the U.S., The Lambda Literary Award, and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association. Cinnamon Gardens, his second novel, was shortlisted for the Trillium Award. It has been published in the U.S., the U.K., India and numerous countries in Europe. Shyam Selvadurai lives in Toronto.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Thomas

"Swimming in the Monsoon Sea" is about Amrith, a fourteen year boy who has a passion for acting, and has faced terrible tragedy by losing his parents at the age of seven. He has been living with his aunt's family (his mom's close friend) ever since. Now his holiday plans are beggining to look dull a......more

Goodreads review by Sandhya

I read this book for the same reason that Shyam Selvadurai seems to have written it. To find a bridge between worlds one is interested in, and relates to. Selvadurai, who now is a citizen of Canada, and has been residing in Toronto for years, is a Sri Lankan by birth. He was among the thousands of r......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

This beautifully written book recounts the personal awakening of Amrith, a 14 year old boy living a life of upper-class comfort in pre-Civil War Sri Lanka. The love Selvadurai has for his native country is evident in the descriptions of the architecture, landscape and the storms that pepper the book......more


Quotes

"As lush and languid as its Sri Lanka setting...What captures readers is the way the story rolls in waves, mimicking how Amrith looks at himself, then looks away. The luxuriant language with details of architecture and verdant gardens doesn't call attention to itself, but refreshes like a breeze. Selvadurai, who wrote so gracefully for adults...now does the same for teens."
Booklist, Starred Review


Awards

  • Governor General's Literary Award - Children (English)