Yahya recounts his days of growing up with not one but several mothers in one of East London’s dilapidated ayah centres. Interestingly, Yahya’s history, experiences in the United Kingdom, and his travel to Syria echo Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. Both novels skilfully explore the identity crises that an outsider faces in a white nation with an imperial history. What Gunaratne’s fiction presents is the story of man whose life has gone through tumultuous experiences, a man who has failed at many fronts — even morally. But beneath these layers of contesting turmoil lies the essence of the tale of a man who has undergone familial abandonment, bodily disfigurement, and cultural alienation in a particular time and space.

Source: The Telegraph September 01, 2023 16:50 UTC