A beautiful memoir of Ondaatje's eccentric Dutch-Ceylonese family, who, drinking and gambling and bitching, lived lives of both 'Baudelairean excess' and 'impeccable decorum'.
As story of two neighbours: one Sinhalese, one Tamil as they grow up together.
A fine collection of stories by a young Sri Lankan author, about the things, both obvious and subtle, that civil war does to the lives of various Sri Lankans.