She’s the reason we’re having this conversation. She helped me shave off 100 pages, get rid of the boring bits and get it out to the world. One of them, Chiki Sarkar, grabbed Chinaman and ran with it. A year later I met Amit Varma at the Galle Lit Fest, who gave me some useful email addresses of Indian Publishers.

I sent queries to publishers and agents in cricket nations around the world but got no bites. So I self-published it in Sri Lanka, which is what many local writers do, simply because print-runs are so small and costs are reasonably low. I liked how it turned out, though I wasn’t sure anyone else would be interested. So I quit my job in advertising and spent the next 2 years watching cricket matches and interviewing drunks and writing. I wrote before work every day and after 6 months my short story was 80 pages long and unfinished. The career of Lanka’s greatest cricketer, who broke world records, disappeared and was then forgotten. Shehan: I had this idea, which I thought would make a good short story. But for me it’s most satisfying when readers who know nothing about cricket or Sri Lanka engage with the story. Most readers get the subtext of the book and understand that it’s about more than just cricket. It was great to get quotes from the likes of Michael Ondaatje and Mohammed Hanif. The response and the reviews have been fantastic. Perhaps I was afraid that Sri Lankans, especially cricket fans, would be offended by WG’s portrayal of the country. Shehan: I left Sri Lanka to take a job in Singapore just before it was published. SB: The reception to the book and the responses that thrilled you? So now to get on a shortlist is terrific when I consider my expectations when I started. I thought it might be read in Galle and Kandy, and if translated, in the rest of the country. To get it read in India was a dream and to have it published in the rest of the world was beyond a dream.

Shehan: When I wrote Chinaman, I didn’t expect it to export outside of Colombo. I did this interview in Dec 2011, while he was on the shortlist of the DSC Prize. ( Of course Shehan went on to win, barely a month after this conversation) This bass-passionate adman’s debut novel Chinaman: the Legend of Pradeep Mathew won the 2008 Gratiaen Prize, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012 and the Commonwealth Book Prize 2012. Srilanka, cricket, writing, the next word in line these days is Shehan Karunatilaka. “But writing for awards is a mug’s game, and those who do it should have their pens confiscated.” Shehan Karunatilaka

Chinaman by shehan