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A Lankan makes literary waves
By Chandri Peris in London
In 1999, Gerald Kaufman, the Chairman of the Judges of the Booker Prize recommended a book called Mirage referring to it as "a first rate novel". Even though Mirage did not make the final shortlist, it remained among the final ten books that were up for consideration.

One critic wrote of Mirage, "you would have to search very hard to find a more lucid and beautiful example of contemporary story-telling", and another judge at the Booker Prize interviewed on radio said, "It was like a draft of very cool, very pure spring water compared to the rather ambitious and rather over-complicated English literary novels", that were also up for the awards that same year.

Several years later, Mirage has achieved extraordinary recognition among literary critics around the world. One of them went so far as to comment, "chosen by three of the Booker judges as their book of the year....its exclusion from the shortlist is unfathomable”.

Set in an unnamed Middle-Eastern country, Mirage tells the story of simple people caught up in circumstances beyond their control. Examples of the traditional and the ultra-modern, of poverty and wealth and joy and sorrow are mixed against a subtle background of oppression, religious fanaticism and savage justice in this extraordinary novel written with simplicity, clarity and directness. And all this from a Sri Lankan writer, Bandula Chandraratne.

Chandraratne was born in Sri Lanka and migrated to Britain in 1967. His father mortgaged his property to send his 21-year-old son to Britain to train as a student nurse. He remembers his first posting in a hospital in Eastbourne as a period in his life that he hated. It was all the more difficult since he hardly spoke any English.

After undergoing the hardships that are commonplace among most third world students who are faced with many trials in surviving in the west, he trained to become a medical laboratory scientist specializing in clinical biochemistry. During this time he met and married his wife Indra, who had also come to Britain to train as a nurse.

In 1978, the Chandraratnes' who by then had two daughters, moved to Saudi Arabia where they lived and worked for six years. It was his experiences of Saudi Arabia and its people that provided the inspiration for his first novel, which he began writing whilst working in the Great Ormond Street Hospital after returning to Britain in 1983.

Chandraratne found it impossible to find a publisher for his novel. After 13 years of trying to get his book on the shelves, he went ahead and set up his own publishing company called Serendip for the sole purpose of issuing the book himself.

One of the reasons for this lack of support from publishers may have been their desire to promote books that are by 'ethnic' authors who write about third world issues which have now become fashionable within the English speaking literati.

Chandraratne insists that he does not want to be compartmentalized within this particular group and believes that it is the story and the language that matters and not where the book is set. Hence, a book written in English, set in the Middle East, by a Sri Lankan novelist.

The success of Mirage, which now has begun to reflect the "shameful indifference of publishers" according to one critic, has even had certain agents writing to him to apologise for their initial rejection. Today, Bandula Chandraratne has no shortage of publishers.

The sequel to Mirage titled An Eye for an Eye has now been published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson and is already being hailed as "a little masterpiece" by such established novelists like Doris Lessing while Kaufman calls it "hauntingly unforgettable".

Mirage, meanwhile, has been re-published by a publishing company called Phoenix House. The success of his two books has encouraged him to write a third, which he says will complete the trilogy as he originally intended. These books are now raising a lot of curiosity around the world because of their subject matter, particularly among those who want to understand the mentality of the people who live in Islamic countries.

They have now been translated into several languages, including Hebrew. A translation of Mirage is now available in Sinhala too. Success, however, has not gone to the head of this humble and soft-spoken Sri Lankan, who, after giving up working in hospitals went into self-employment and now runs a Home for Elders in his large Edwardian house situated in the picturesque surroundings of the Nene valley in Oundle, Peterborough.

Writing novels and caring for the elderly are only part of the several tasks that Bandula Chandraratne divides his time between. He is driven by a passion to help his fellow countrymen and devotes a great deal of time collecting redundant books from all over Britain for the purpose of sending them across to schools and libraries in Sri Lanka. He also provides computers to many institutions, most of which are situated out of Colombo.

Childhood memories of going to school at Gurukula Vidyalaya and Kirillawela Maha Vidyalaya, which either had no libraries or a sum total of about 50 books among its 2,000 pupils have remained so vivid in his mind that he feels it is necessary to promote learning among the underprivileged.

Using himself as an example of someone who only had eight O'L subjects to start with, he feels that those Sri Lankans who have 'made it' at home and abroad, should go out of their way to help and promote students who are trying to facilitate their own learning. He makes constant appeals to other Sri Lankans to contribute to this most worthy of causes.

Bandula Chandraratne hopes to retire soon and concentrate on writing his third novel. If the acclaim and the success of his first two novels is anything to go by, we should eagerly await the completion of this trilogy. Most who have read Mirage and An Eye for an Eye agree that he has several more stories in him. I myself will follow the advice of several critics and urge you to read all his books.

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