Asylum

Author :  Channa Wickremesekera

Publisher : Samayawardhana Publishers

First Edition 

ISBN 978-0-646-91105-2

111 Pages

Allah shouldn’t have revealed so much to  the prophet. It only makes pious people like us suffer’

So muses Khalid Khan, a seventeen year old Afghan boy living in Melbourne. Khalid is like any other boy of his age in Australia; he loves his Footy. His mum’s cooking and takes every opportunity to tease his sister Aisha. He believes in Allah although he sometime  wonders whether it is such a good idea to convert everybody in the world to Islam.

The quiet suburban life of Khalid’s family is turned upside down one  Friday morning when they have  an unwelcome visitor. What follows is a hilarious –and poignant- intercultural encounter in multicultural Australia.

‘In this age of information overload  where invective sometimes engulfs reasoned debate, chhana’s fine novella on the lives of asylum seekers might provide a humanist counterweight to the innate prejudices many of us sadly harbor about them’

                                                                                                                                         -Michael Cooke, Doryanthes

I Would urge readers to get several copies of Asylum for themselves and their friends- it has a message for everyone who can  read and think beyond the confines of their own limited conditioning, and understand ( as Russell did, and Khalid eventually does ) the value of a multi- cultural experience.

Prof. Yasmine Goonereratne, Ceylon Today

Channa Wickremesekere is a Sri Lanka- born writer in Melbourne. His earlier works of fiction are Walls, Distant Warriors and In the Same Boat.

#Asylum #ChannaWickramasekere #EnglishBooks #EnglishNovels