Peter Adamson

Facing Out To Sea

Sceptre 1997 Paperback, 343pp. â€oeIt took me into a world I knew very little about and opened my eyes to its beauty and interest. What I especially admired was the way the characters were both representative of large ideas and yet also fully human … it’s a huge achievementâ€� – Alain de Bottonâ€� â€oeI was captivated by the atmosphere but it was the sheer thoughtfulness of this novel that interested me … one of the most consistently intelligent and fascinating novels about what goes on in people’s minds that I’ve read for a long time. Quite mesmeric in its holdâ€� – Margaret Forster â€oeHis descriptions of the Colombo slums are marvellous and the Singhalese characters are vivid and credible … there are luminous realisations as true for Chandra and Vijay as for our First World selvesâ€� – The Observer First published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1996, Facing out to Sea is set in the city of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and tells the story of two lives - and two worlds - colliding. Vijay Vijayaratne is a waiter who spends his days in the quiet, elegant verandah restaurant of an exclusive ocean-front hotel – and his nights amid all the noise and squalor of a Colombo slum. Clara Lane is a Western tourist whose stay in the privileged, protected setting of the hotel makes her curious about the raw life of the city outside. As the two come to know each other, the contrast in cultures and circumstance sets up a shock wave that rocks both their lives and reverberates well beyond. Cover lightly creased. (ISBN: 9780340695654). Good.

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Book number: 1543481

Catalogue: General

Keywords: Fiction9780340695654 9780340695654