Upon a Sleepless Isle

Dense green forests in Yala white-sand coasts in Trincomalee azure waters off the south coast Anuradhapura’s ancient temples and cricket. Civil war political assassinations internally displaced communities industrial-scale corruption. All are Sri Lanka. As are smug bureaucrats nosy neighbours and stray dogs with serious axes to grind. Through the eyes of Andrew Fidel Fernando cricket writer par excellence both a local and a tourist in his home country Sri Lanka comes alive as he hurtles down hills in Kandy breathes in the history at the rock fortress of Sigiriya grapples with the aftermath of war in Jaffna and has himself evicted from restaurants near Galle. Weaving through all manner of villages paddy fields mountains jungles and marshlands and pausing for the pests at grimy guesthouses and the vacationers of luxury hotels Fernando has the time for every genre of person and wildlife in this chaotic exquisite frustrating bewitching tumultuous and intoxicating land. Hilariously witty yet wistfully sombre Upon a Sleepless Isle is the story of a country and a people caught between long historical traditions and global capitalism resulting in this ingenious paradise