It is also a mature, poetic novel which the British press has compared to the works of James Joyce, Graham Greene, V.S. It is a personal story that parallels the larger movement of a country from a hopeful, young democracy to troubled island society. Through these characters and the forty years of political disintegration their country endures, Gunesekera tells the tragic, sometimes comic, story of a lost paradise and a young man coming to terms with his destiny.įrom the Back Cover Reef is the elegant and moving story of Triton, a talented young chef so committed to pleasing his master's palate that he is oblivious to the political unrest threatening his Sri Lankan paradise. Salgado, an aristocratic marine biologist and student of sea movements and the disappearing reef, and his houseboy, Triton, who learns to polish silver until it shines like molten sun to mix a love cake with ten eggs, creamed butter, and fresh cadju nuts to marinate tiger prawns and to steam parrot fish. Reef earned universal praise from European critics and landed the young author on the short list for the 1994 Booker Prize, England's highest honor for fiction. With his collection of short stories Monkfish Moon-a New York Times Notable Book of 1993-Romesh Gunesekera quickly established himself as a leading literary voice.

It is also a mature, poetic novel which the British press has compared to the works of James Joyce, Graham Greene, V.

Reef is the elegant and moving story of Triton, a talented young chef so committed to pleasing his master's palate that he is oblivious to the political unrest threatening his Sri Lankan paradise.

Reef romesh