Swimming In The Monsoon Sea by Shyam SelvaduraiSwimming In The Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai

Swimming In The Monsoon Sea

byShyam Selvadurai

Paperback | August 14, 2007

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Nominated for the Governor General's Literary Awards 2005, (Children's Literature, Text)


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.

Shyam Selvadurai’s brilliant novels, Funny Boy and Cinnamon Gardens, have garnered him international acclaim. In this, his first young adult novel, he explores first love with clarity, humor,
and compassion.
Shyam Selvadurai was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka and came to Canada with his family at the age of nineteen. 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. In the U.S., it was the winner of The Lambda Literary Award, and was nam...
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Title:Swimming In The Monsoon SeaFormat:PaperbackDimensions:280 pages, 7.63 × 5.26 × 0.78 inPublished:August 14, 2007Publisher:TundraLanguage:English

The following ISBNs are associated with this title:

ISBN - 10:0887768342

ISBN - 13:9780887768347

Appropriate for ages: 13 - 17

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BooksFiction and LiteratureFiction

Reviews

Rated 5 out of 5 by from Divine read! When Amrith’s parents die under suspicious circumstances, he goes to live with his mother’s childhood friend. There, he grows up as part of a privileged family in Sri Lanka in the 1980s. When his Canadian cousin comes to visit, Amrith’s world changes dramatically which forces Amrith to come to terms with his past and his own true identity. This book has been beautifully written, and Shyam Selvadurai has provided just enough detail for the reader to temporarily exist alongside Amrith in his faraway world without being lost in convoluted descriptions. And if you listen closely enough you can hear Selvadurai’s lilting voice with each turn of the page. Although written for young adults, this novel reads more like a work of adult fiction. This is not to say it is unsuitable for younger readers, rather they would need to be able to appreciate the slower pace of this novel which favours vivid and beautiful descriptions over fast-paced action.
Date published: 2009-07-20

Editorial Reviews

"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