Shyam Selvadurai
Shyam Selvadurai
Shyam Selvaduraiis a Sri Lankan Canadian novelist who wrote Funny Boy, which won the Books in Canada First Novel Award, and Cinnamon Gardens. He currently lives in Toronto with his partner Andrew Champion...
NationalitySri Lankan
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth12 February 1965
life
I don't really know if things go from one life to another. I don't know if there's another life after this. I don't want to know.
examples experience immigrant knew literature
I knew I had to write about Canada. I just could not find in literature any examples of the immigrant experience that I've had.
avoid falling felt flawed nature
For me, growing up, I felt like there was something fatally and tragically flawed in my nature and that it was my duty to try to avoid falling for that vice.
believe produces
I believe that everything we think and feel and do produces a result and that we have to deal with that result - that result is then something that produces another result, so on and so forth, so yes, I do believe in causality.
events family home lost members mind personal possible situation unbearable
On a personal level, I think the political situation in Sri Lanka is very much on the mind of Sri Lankans in Canada. They have family here and family back home, and it's possible they've lost members in any one of those tremendous, unbearable events there.
specialty store
When we first moved to Scarborough, there was one Sri Lankan grocery store - now there's a take-out on every corner, each with some specialty or another. You can get what you want the way you want it, and that's very different from the way it used to be.