To put it simply, this is a beautiful book. Its language is surprising and lyrical. Mister Salgado’s house comes alive like a house in an exceptionally vivid dream. And those descriptions of food, the love cake, the crab curry and appams…drool!
The only thing I didn’t like was it being framed by the whole moving to London bit. I loved the story that’s in Colombo – a secret place, a private neighbourhood, not the public metropolis of London. Leaving that aside, the Sri Lankan bits are by far the better written ones, in Triton’s young, still unassured voice.