Billa saha Apuru Muhuna is a collection of short stories by Martin Wickramasinghe (1890-1976), the Sinhala novelist, critic and essayist often called the father of modern Sinhala literature. It is a single volume rather than a novel, and its title, meaning Billa and Apuru Muhuna, joins the names of two of the pieces it contains. This is a Sinhala-language edition.
Apuru Muhuna, usually rendered in English as The Strange Face, is listed in English-language bibliographies of Wickramasinghe as a short-story collection of 1944, the same year as his best-known novel, Gamperaliya. The Sinhala Wikipedia lists the combined title Billa saha Apuru Muhuna among his short-story books under 1949. The book has remained in print, with editions recorded in Sri Lanka's national union catalogue in the 2000s.
According to the description given by the author's publishers, the volume contains fifteen short stories marked by satire and human compassion. Those two qualities run through much of Wickramasinghe's short fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, the period of Pavkarayata Galgesima and Handa Sakki Kima, when critics see him turning from openly moralising storytelling towards a more sympathetic, observant portrayal of ordinary Sinhala life.
The book suits Sinhala readers who enjoy short fiction with an ironic but humane outlook, and anyone reading their way through Wickramasinghe's stories beyond the famous novels.
- Author: Martin Wickramasinghe
- Language: Sinhala
