Reef - by Romesh Gunesekera (Paperback)

About the Book

Gunesekera's short story collection Monkfish Moon--a New York Times Notable Book of 1993--quickly established him as a leading literary voice. Reef, his first novel, tells the powerful and moving story of a young Sri Lankan houseboy who is so caught up in trying to please his master that he is oblivious to the larger world as it spirals out of control. "An enchanting, endlessly funny and affecting novel".--San Francisco Chronicle.

Book Synopsis

The "incandescent" (New York Times Book Review) coming-of-age-story and debut novel by the acclaimed Booker Prize finalist Romesh Gunesekera

Triton loved living in Mister Salgado's house. It was the biggest house he had ever seen--filled with floors to sweep and silver to polish and meals to cook and adults to impress and a brilliant master whose voice was poetry. And people from all over the world came to the house-- to sell their wares, to talk, to live, for this was where life took place. Even the sun would rise from the garage and sleep behind the del tree at night. And in the house, life was good.

But beyond Mister Salgado's house and their Sri Lankan village there was a world. And all around them, it was falling apart...

Review Quotes

"A book which touches powerfully and deeply." -"The Times" (London)

"Gunesekera's loving, elegiac prose lingers on so many minutely exquisite facets of tropical life that to read a few pages is to abandon your world for his. To enter the world of "Reef" is like diving underwater into shoals of glittering fish, among sculptures of living coral. Beauty is everywhere and time vanishes as you read." -"The San Francisco Chronicle"

"Powerful, incandescent... Lost innocence in the final years before a war is the theme of this eloquent first novel." -"The New York Times Book Review"

"Put your ear to the page, and you can almost hear the ocean whisper." -"The Independent"

About the Author

Romesh Gunesekera grew up in Sri Lanka and the Philippines and now lives in London. He is the author of the novel, Reef, which was a Booker Prize finalist, and a collection of short stories, Monkfish Moon, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.