Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
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Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
Narrated by:
Rehan Mudannayake
Buy Now for £7.70
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Narrated by:
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Rehan Mudannayake
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By:
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Shyam Selvadurai
Shyam Selvadurai’s brilliant novels, Funny Boy and Cinnamon Gardens, have garnered him international acclaim. In his first young adult novel, now with a new cover, he explores first love with clarity, humor and compassion.
The setting is Sri Lanka, 1980, and it is the season of monsoons. Fourteen-year-old Amrith is caught up in the life of the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Auntie Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life “before,” when his doting mother was still alive. Amrith’s holiday plans seem unpromising: he wants to appear in his school’s production of Othello and he is learning to type at Uncle Lucky’s tropical fish business. Then, like an unexpected monsoon, his cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith’s ordered life is storm-tossed. He finds himself falling in love with the Canadian boy. Othello, with its powerful theme of disastrous jealousy, is the backdrop to the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed.
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Critic reviews
One of the Canadian Children's Book Centre's 50 Must-Read Canadian Young Adult Books
"As lush and languid as its Sri Lanka setting...What captures readers is the way the story rolls in waves, mimicking how Amrith looks at himself, then looks away. The luxuriant language with details of architecture and verdant gardens doesn't call attention to itself, but refreshes like a breeze. Selvadurai, who wrote so gracefully for adults...now does the same for teens."
—STARRED REVIEW, Booklist
"As lush and languid as its Sri Lanka setting...What captures readers is the way the story rolls in waves, mimicking how Amrith looks at himself, then looks away. The luxuriant language with details of architecture and verdant gardens doesn't call attention to itself, but refreshes like a breeze. Selvadurai, who wrote so gracefully for adults...now does the same for teens."
—STARRED REVIEW, Booklist
The emotions and stories of teenage love, family death, trauma and finding out you are gay are really touching, though the one that stood out was the chapter about the mother giving her son to her friend. This abandonment chapter made me feel as if I was there in the moment. The lines of the palms on the window - this line really choked me up.
The reason why I gave 4 stars to the story is because there were so many threads, that at points, I could appreciate the significance certain parts of the story played to the overall story of Amrith.
Thank you to the author. This is the first of his books I have read and I would read more.
Relatable
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