The subject here is the raven — the bird most people in Sri Lanka walk past every day without a second glance, and swat away when it gets too close to the lunch table. Capt. Elmo Jayawardena takes the bird seriously instead, and builds a short story around its life.
The telling is plain. There is no attempt to make the raven into something it is not; the interest lies in watching an ordinary, unloved creature closely enough that it stops being ordinary. Jayawardena writes with sympathy for the bird and curiosity about how it lives, and the result is a book about attention as much as about ravens.
Written in English and published in Colombo by M. D. Gunasena & Co., it will suit readers who like short, humane storytelling, and anyone drawn to writing about animals that sits closer to observation than to natural history. Readers abroad with a connection to Sri Lanka may recognise the bird on every roofline and rubbish heap of their memory of the island.
- Author: Capt. Elmo Jayawardena
- Publisher: M. D. Gunasena & Co. (Pvt) Ltd
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789552127953
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