It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
Chinaman

Chinaman

From author of Booker Prize 2022 winner The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Summary

Discover the blazing debut novel from the Booker Prize winning author.

'A crazy ambidextrous delight' Michael Ondaatje

Where is Pradeep S. Mathew - spin bowler extraordinaire and 'the greatest cricketer to walk the earth'?

Retired sportswriter W. G. Karunasena is dying, and he wants to know.

W.G. will spend his final months drinking arrack, making his wife unhappy, ignoring his son and tracking down the mysterious Pradeep. On his quest he will also uncover a coach with six fingers, a secret bunker below a famous stadium, a Tamil Tiger warlord, and startling truths about Sri Lanka, cricket and himself.

'Bristling with energy and confidence' Sunday Times

Winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature

Reviews

  • The strength of the book lies in its energy, its mixture of humour and heartwrenching emotion, its twisting narrative, its playful use of cricketing facts and characters, and its occasional blazing anger about what Sri Lanka has done to itself...
    Kamila Shamsie, Guardian

About the author

Shehan Karunatilaka

Shehan Karunatilaka is the multi-award winning author of two novels. He won the Commonwealth Book Prize and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature for his debut novel, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew. He won the Booker Prize 2022 for his second novel, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. In addition to his novels he has written rock songs, screenplays and travel stories.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more