Pavkarayata Galgesima 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 was first published in 1936, and its title is usually rendered in English as Stoning the Sinner. This is a Sinhala-language edition. The title is also spelt Pavkarayata Gal Gaseema or Pawkarayata Gal Geseema.
The book came out in the decade before his best-known novel, Gamperaliya (1944), and sits between his early collections Geheniyak (1924) and Magul Gedara (1927) and the later Handa Sakki Kima (1945) and Vahallu (1951).
The title points to the idea that runs through the book. As the Daily Mirror has summarised it, Wickramasinghe suggests that we should feel sympathy for the sinner and direct our criticism at the sin rather than the person. In the preface, quoted by the political scientist Jayadeva Uyangoda, he describes looking at human wickedness and goodness alike with a kind of sympathetic neutrality. Uyangoda places the collection within the shift in Wickramasinghe's writing away from openly moralising fiction towards a gentler, more empathic way of portraying people.
The publisher's description presents it as an entertaining collection that depicts the ironic and humorous situations of everyday life. The book suits Sinhala readers who enjoy short fiction with a wry, humane eye, and students of Wickramasinghe's development as a writer between his early novels and his major works of the 1940s.
- Author: Martin Wickramasinghe
- Published: 1936
- Language: Sinhala
