PUBLICATIONS

Books can be ordered by writing to / contacting me [Vihanga] or by writing to the FB group: “Vihanga’s Literary Group, Version 2.0”.

e.mail – owlgeorgeperera@yahoo.com
FB – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=138173616224900

 

VIHANGA PERERA Books available at: Sarasavi, Vijitha Yapa, Expographic && Barefoot, Colombo 4.

 

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VIHANGA PERERA — BOOKS:

PEOPLE WHO DON’T COUNT

Kandy: 2012.
Poetry
ISBN 978-955-54542-0-9
68 pages
Rs. 500

A personally satisfying effort, which collects some of the work between “Busted Intellectual” (2010) and the immediate post-FOG aftermath (2012). A more personal focus, with a reflection on issues of relationship, loss, ennui and nostalgia. Received a special mention by the panel at the Gratiaen Prize 2012. Commended by the “Inner City” book Readers’ Circle for the use of “memory” and imagery.

WATER IN THE MOON
Kandy: 2012.
Criticism
ISBN 978-955-99458-9-5
160 pages.
Rs. 650

WATER IN THE MOON collects critical perspectives on a selected band of contemporary Sri Lankan English fiction writers. Essays include those on Shehan Karunatilaka, Mark Wilde, Nihal De Silva, Herman Gunaratna, Shirani Rajapaksha, A. Santhan, Karen Roberts and Michael Ondaatje.

Written for a domestic reader, this edition is focused on the most recent works on the defined theme, which post date 2004.

THE FEAR OF GAMBLING
Kandy: 2011.
Fiction
ISBN 978-955-99458-8-8
302 pages
Rs. 700 ($ 12)

The Fear of Gambling is written in Sri Lanka, in the aftermath of the 2009 military crushing of the LTTE. For a part, it is set in the vicinity of the decisive final phases of this civil crisis. The “story” has several threads — the prominent among them being the narrator’s retrospective renderings of tales “growing up”; and his journey in search of an ex-lover. The narrator’s under-achieved youth, its restless vibes, the socio-political apathy of his peers, along with the resonance of sub/urban Sri Lanka, form the crux of the “story”.

The Nation (a weekly) identifies the FOG as an experimental work of fiction and as a commendable ‘must read’.

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BUSTED INTELLECTUAL
Kandy: 2010.
Poetry
ISBN 978-955-99458-6-4
76 pages
Rs. 300.00

BUSTED INTELLECTUAL is a collection which is both “political” and “personal”. It reflects the writer’s own meditations and anxieties in a Sri Lanka, soon after the military defeat of the LTTE in 2009.

The poetry is often topical and is relevant to the year of publication: 2010. It departs from the stylistic experimentation/s involved in the writing of PESTICIDES.

The collection is also inclusive of a corpus dealing with personal experiences, anxieties and of nostalgia. The poetry, as a whole, present a vibrant mix of tones, moods, and voices.

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UNPLUGGED QUARTER
Kandy: 2009
Longer Fiction / Novel
ISBN 978-955-99458-5-7
139 pages
Rs. 430.00

UNPLUGGED QUARTER is a work of longer fiction. It is based on some incidents which took place between May and August, 200-. Nayana Mendis comes to Kandy, after receiving a government appointment. Poornaka receives him there. The said Nayana takes lodgings at Chandani Welivita’s place. In the meantime, Vahanya and Bheemsingha undertake a heavy repairing of their paneling and ceiling. Sri is in his final year as a student of English. Manishka, too, is in her final year as a student of Drama. UNPLUGGED QUARTER, among other possibilities, is an arrangement that runs along these lines.

BGT Thotawatte and Titus Rodrigo are two academics of two generations. The narrator compares their “contest” at an event organized by the Music Society to the agon between Aeschylus and Euripides in Aristophanes’ play “The Frogs”. Nayana turns up at the Navy-Kandy game with a girl named Chandima. A few weeks afterwards, while sitting by a river, Sri visualizes Chandima – as he
remembers her from that last meeting.

[‘UNPLUGGED QUARTER‘ will be updated on 29th Jan, 2010]

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PESTICIDES FOR MA PANTS
Kandy: 2009
Poetry
ISBN 978-955-99458-4-0
29 pages
Price – Unmarked

PESTICIDES is a volume of 14 topical poems — poems written while the island was undergoing a transition in its ethnic-political hue/s. Some poems are presented in this blog as well. The poetry, at times, is tedious and requires effort.

Except for 2 — maybe 3 — poems, the others essentially capture various degrees of the political and of the anxious.

The 29 page non-fat version would be a novel experience for the reader; a concept where the reader would place the content over the bulk. PESTICIDES collects 14 poems.

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STABLE HORSES
Kandy: 2008.
Longer Fiction / Novel
ISBN 978-955-99458-3-3
135 PAGES
Rs. 430.00

STABLE HORSES (shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2008) is a work of longer fiction — the “story” tries to capture several “flashes” from the life of a “had it all” copywriter, CS Kaushalyan. Several events from Kaushalyan’s present and past feature in this fragmented narrative — and the narrative is only a super-imposition of this sense of fragmentation which Kaushalyan is an object of.

While Kaushalyan engages in trying to set his life straight, his migrated friend (of yesteryear, now forgotten) Malinda dies and his body is flown home. The story “ends” with Kaushalyan not winning a literary prize to which he had submitted.

STABLE HORSES received several harsh critiques by several journalists.
The protagonist of STABLE HORSES, C.S. Kaushalyan, can also be traced in my short story “The Foxtrot” (the last piece in THE[IR] [AU]TOPSY).

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THE[IR] [AU]TOPSY
Kandy: 2006.
Short Fiction
ISBN 955-99458-0-7
206 pages
Rs. 420.00

THE[IR] [AU]TOPSY was the debut collection of short fiction — It consists of 15 pieces of experimental short fiction. This is an often “misread” text, for it is tangibly abstract in an experimental line.
Perhaps, of the few who have read it, even fewer may have truly “read” THE[IR] [AU]TOPSY — leaving it a most under-rated and under-weighed publication.

No reviews of it have appeared — maybe, the text does not encourage comment; or else, the effort in doing so is felt to be not worthy. The 15 short stories draw heavily on abstract, personal realms. These, however, are neatly infused with the social climates, topical issues etc of the day.

THE[IR] [AU]TOPSY was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in 2006.