Thanks to The New Press, this was my first exposure to Romesh Gunesekera’s writing and boy, was it delicious! From the beginning, I was swept up in the nostalgic world of 1960s Sri Lanka – one filled with Chocolacs, exotic birds, dazzling natural landscapes, and posh mansions. However, Suncatcher’s scenery is not the main draw of this book. Instead, the coming of age story traces the friendship between Kairo and Jay, both trying to manoeuver adolescence in postcolonial Sri Lanka. If you like books like A Separate Peace and movies like Stand By Me, then I think you’ll also love Suncatcher. Highly recommended.

This tale of friendship and coming-of-age is set in Ceylon in 1964 just before the looming political upheaval which will change the country for ever. Signs of the coming disruption are everywhere, but young Kairo is more concerned with his burgeoning friendship with the slightly older and more privileged Jay, a relationship which will change his own life for ever just as profoundly as the political situation. It’s a tender and insightful tale, which captures the fragility of the boys’ relationship, although I sometimes found their exploits – racing cars, building aviaries - didn’t really engage me. I was more interested in the political aspects of the novel but these are not really the focus but simply the background. I enjoyed the book but didn’t find it particularly compelling.

I found myself being very confused when reading this story as I couldn't put my finger on what the story itself was about. Not sure if this is a case of the translation of Gunesekera's book or that the story itself just didn't fit with me and what I expected from the description, which was describing a coming-of-age story. I couldn't really concentrate on the story itself because of my initial confusion on WHAT the story wanted to tell me.

I really wanted to like the novel - it did sound like it would be right up my alley with the coming-of-age, finding oneself sort of plot - but like stated, it was rather confusing instead.

I make an effort to read internationally. I believe it’s important to sample global literary perspectives and it makes one a well rounded reader. So that was the main appeal of this book for me, its Sri Lankan setting. The story itself is a fairly prototypical bildungsroman set during a turbulent time to emphasize and highlight the dramatic events of a six month friendship between two boys from very different social strata. The main character is a kid from an average family, with pragmatical mother and political minded socialist father, who wants nothing more than to disappear into the world of fiction, but then he meets Jay, a slightly older teen from a wealthy family, a rebel, an aspiring naturalist and an all around exciting guy to know. Their friendship develops rapidly and has that certain intensity that only friendships of youth can maintain. All around them there’s political unrest in then Ceylon as the country struggles to shed its colonial past and become something other, something new, there’s turmoil within their individual families too. But the boys have magic on their side, the invincible summer of fun…until it’s too late. So yes, there’s the juxtaposition of social classes, meditations on duty and privilege, fun and recklessness and all the things that might make you think. The writing is lovely, Sri Lanka really comes to life in these pages, the jungle in all its verdant splendor, the streets under the boys’ sandals, all that. And yet, somehow I didn’t really connect with the story emotionally, so for me the appreciation of the book was almost strictly intellectual. It was also quite disappointing tom learn that the author messed around with the actual historical events to accommodate the story, because a. I love learning things about the world and this then wasn’t all that education and b. the story didn’t really require the fudging of event timelines, it was flexible enough of a narrative to be instead woven around the actual historical facts. So it worked as a day to day glimpse into the life in a far away country in a bygone era, it represented the zeitgeist, but didn’t really give you a very good idea of the historical context of it all. Then again, it did motivate me to read up about Sri Lanka online, so it did turned out to be educational that way. The book read easily and quickly and the language alone might be worth your time. Thanks Netgalley.