- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Impress Books (1 Sep 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1907605029
- ISBN-13: 978-1907605024
- Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.4 x 1.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 455,298 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"Roshi Fernando is a virtuoso writer, whose work is distinguished by unique flair, a powerful style and disciplined artistic intelligence." --Stevie Davies, Booker and Orange prize shortlisted author
Roshi has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011 for 'The Fluorescent Jacket' which appears as one of the interlinked stories that make-up Homesick. Other shortlisted authors include Booker prize winner Hilary Mantel and Gerard Woodward, who has previously been shortlisted for the Booker and the TS Eliot prizes. The judges are Melvyn Bragg, Will Self, Daisy Waugh, A S Byatt, Andrew Holgate and Matthew Evans. --The Sunday Times
Roshi has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award 2011 for 'The Fluorescent Jacket' which appears as one of the interlinked stories that make-up Homesick. Other shortlisted authors include Booker prize winner Hilary Mantel and Gerard Woodward, who has previously been shortlisted for the Booker and the TS Eliot prizes. The judges are Melvyn Bragg, Will Self, Daisy Waugh, A S Byatt, Andrew Holgate and Matthew Evans. --The Sunday Times
Review
A debut that can sit alongside Zadie Smith's White Teeth and Andrea Levy's Small Island ... Powerful and revelatory Sunday Times A rambunctious portrait of an extended Sri Lankan family in south London, it's as addictive as any full-length book by Vikram Seth or Michael Ondaatje Irish Times Roshi Fernando, winner of the 2009 Impress Prize, doesn't shirk from the harsh realities of the outcast ... this collection of stories is tender, uplifting and funny Observer Roshi Fernando's urgent stories offer a tantalising glimpse of the unexpected connections people make, living in today's Britain Romesh Gunesekera Roshi Fernando is a virtuoso writer, whose work is distinguished by unique flair, a powerful style and disciplined artistic intelligence Stevie Davies
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The "composite novel" form is unusual, although not exactly new (think Arthurian legends, for instance). Bridging the gap between short story collection and "normal" novel in chapters, it consists of a number of stories, linking into a coherent overall narrative, but with each story being strong enough and well enough structured to stand independently. The recent outstanding example was "Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories" by Elizabeth Strout, and Roshi Fernando has much in common with Strout's quiet, unassuming narrative voice. Fernando's writing can also be reminiscent of the best contemporary short story writers: Alice Munro, or William Trevor, capable of power and emotion (and sudden changes of pace) in natural, unpretentious language. Stevie Davies has referred to Fernando's writing as "virtuoso" - high praise from one who knows.
This book revolves around a group of people with Sri Lankan heritage who are well established in the UK. The experience of the first post-war wave of non-white Commonwealth immigrants has become something of its own sub-genre, but the sense of displacement (or assured cultural belonging) decades later, and for these people's children, is new and fascinating territory in literature. This is a thoroughly contemporary, complex subject, spanning Britain and Sri Lanka, numerous religions, social classes and ways of life.
And so the range of "Homesick" is quite extraordinary: in its 200 pages you encounter (among other things) a crime caper, an old lady's ill-judged erotic lunge, a terrorist meeting someone on a bus, a traumatic coming of age in a leafy suburb, a silent boy who experiences life through Charlie Chaplin, realpolitik in the aftermath of civil war, a sudden insight into the human condition broadcast on Radio 1, a garden labourer's life destroyed by his proximity to a child's murder. There is humour, high drama, domesticity, pathos and intimacy. Each story is linked by the theme of cultural displacement and the broad post-immigration community, but this is never overt. The cast of characters is so intricately drawn that they come to life independent of the fictional scenario, and as they reappear in a second or third story, it is as though the face of an old friend flashes before you.
I read this book alongside the 2010 Booker long list, and only Lisa Moore's "February" compares for the deftness of touch, breadth of emotion, and ability to draw the reader into its world. Thoroughly recommended to anyone who enjoys fine, thoughtful writing.
This book revolves around a group of people with Sri Lankan heritage who are well established in the UK. The experience of the first post-war wave of non-white Commonwealth immigrants has become something of its own sub-genre, but the sense of displacement (or assured cultural belonging) decades later, and for these people's children, is new and fascinating territory in literature. This is a thoroughly contemporary, complex subject, spanning Britain and Sri Lanka, numerous religions, social classes and ways of life.
And so the range of "Homesick" is quite extraordinary: in its 200 pages you encounter (among other things) a crime caper, an old lady's ill-judged erotic lunge, a terrorist meeting someone on a bus, a traumatic coming of age in a leafy suburb, a silent boy who experiences life through Charlie Chaplin, realpolitik in the aftermath of civil war, a sudden insight into the human condition broadcast on Radio 1, a garden labourer's life destroyed by his proximity to a child's murder. There is humour, high drama, domesticity, pathos and intimacy. Each story is linked by the theme of cultural displacement and the broad post-immigration community, but this is never overt. The cast of characters is so intricately drawn that they come to life independent of the fictional scenario, and as they reappear in a second or third story, it is as though the face of an old friend flashes before you.
I read this book alongside the 2010 Booker long list, and only Lisa Moore's "February" compares for the deftness of touch, breadth of emotion, and ability to draw the reader into its world. Thoroughly recommended to anyone who enjoys fine, thoughtful writing.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Fernando's 'Homesick' is a composite novel which may well provide the reader with their first introduction to the issues faced by the Sri Lankan immigrant - it certainly did me - but there is nothing to fear in picking up this delicate work, since 'Homesick' provides you with everything you need to enjoy it. Issues of race, history, current affairs and politics are seamlessly interwoven and brought to life by a host of characters who are strong or weak, funny or melancholy, brave or frightened, but all equally believable. Fernando writes men and as well as she writes women, and draws children and teenagers with as much aplomb as she does those in middle and old age. It seems there is no demographic Fernando cannot reach and understand. Mumtaz Chaplain in particular is a character who appears, not to have been created, but to have always existed, and I would love to see him narrate a novel of his own. Fernando tackles difficult transitions with ease. Preethi, for example, transforms from a child into a mother, but at no point does this feel contrived. Rather Fernando sensitively guides us, in 200 pages, through twenty years of life, with all its struggles and joys and heartbreaks. 'Homesick' provides the reader with a reflection of life, not a commentary upon it, and it is this which makes it both intriguing and somehow comforting, but also shocking and ultimately beautiful.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As a Sri Lankan immigrant, these stories really appealed to me. There was a mix of comedy, tragedy and drama that I found irresistible. The subject matter covers marriage, motherhood, sexuality and love: something for every reader to enjoy. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a thrilling and thoughtful read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Fine Debut
Quite rightly this has been shortlisted for most of the major prizes going- a series of semi interconnected short stories focussed around one family of Sri-Lankan immigrants in... Read more
Published 4 days ago by ZDDQ140770
'Homesick' by Roshi Fernando
A carefully crafted collection of short stories about the Sri Lankan community in Britain. The stories are inter-linked by virtue of the characters who appear and re-appear in them... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Burnmoori
Beautifully crafted and highly engaging linked stories
This is neither a novel nor a set of short stories, but something in between. It features various Sri Lankan families living in Britain, and presents short stories about various... Read more
Published 7 months ago by M. V. Clarke
Homesick
Homesick is a novel made up of a collection of 17 short stories all inter-related. All the stories come together to tell the story of a community of Sri Lankan immigrants and their... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Charliecat
Sri Lankan Dreams
This book is a series of interconnecting stories - stories of people who moved from Sri Lanka to Britain to set up a new life for themselves. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Richard M. Seel
"Wonderful, like literary Eastenders!"
"It's wonderful, like literary Eastenders!" was how one of my Book Group raved about this novel. It is indeed wonderful and fizzes with life and drama, dealing with the lives and... Read more
Published 13 months ago by Ms. D. Llewellyn
Homesick
Roshi weaves a series of short stories about the lives of Sri Lankan immigrant families into an excellent, readable and thought-provoking composite novel. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Wilkie Martin
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