Author of “Colpetty People”, “Serendipity” and “The Good Little Ceylonese Girl” Ashok Ferrey, launched his second novel at the National Library and Documentation Services Board last Monday in the presence of celebrated authors, friends, family and dignitaries. Three excerpts of the book were brought to life by Ashok Ferrey, Savithri Rodrigo and Francesca Mudalnayake and copies of the book presented to author, Sarojini Sinnathamby and renowned author and playwright Seneka Abeyratne at the launch.

“The Professional”, is a exposé of a protagonist who belongs to two different timelines that “run parallel like the tracks of a railway line…”. Time is the essence of the book as the author aspires to bring out the ‘human quality of time’. A pure Mathematician at Oxford long before he became a writer, Ferrey said, “maths keeps creeping into my books… it tends to be like bones underneath the flesh of the words.”

The young man named Chamath finds himself in the “serious” aspect of the book set in London in 1980 and an old man in Colombo in 2015, described in the “grotesquely absurd” by the writer. Ferrey places the reader “within the mind of God for whom every single timeline runs simultaneously and parallel and self contained.”

The intriguing and adeptly written novel, nominated for this year’s Gratiaen Prize is now available at all leading bookstores. Here’s a closer look at the novel through the eyes of the author himself!

What inspired you to concoct “The Professional”?

This is a story that has been lurking in my mind for 30 years! I think that all writers have several books churning about inside them at any one time, and it is a question of timing as to which arrives when. For instance, I could not see myself having written this book even 5 years ago. As to who inspired me, let me tell you that these characters are drawn absolutely from life: there really was a blue-grey twilight world of illegals living below the grid, and I was privileged (ha!) to be part of it for a year or so.

Target audience

No such thing! You write greedily, selfishly, for yourself, to get it out of your system, to cure yourself of the disease. It’s better than taking a panadol or a laxative! You are lucky, then, if a few people find a resonance with your writing. But don’t expect it, don’t bank on it. Anyone who writes with a weather eye out for an imagined readership is almost guaranteed to do a bad job.

How is the title a reflection of the plot?

Because that is what they were called back then, these guys. The irony here is that the protagonist, Chamath, was anything but professional. He generally messed up, wherever he went!

What role does ‘time’ play in the plot?

I can’t seem to take the maths out of my writing – because I was a pure mathematician long before I was a writer.  I am slightly ashamed of this, so I try to hide it in the words. In this book I think I’m a little obsessed with this question of time: what it means to each of us when it is past; how our memory plays tricks on us, so that my recollection of those times past will often be substantially different from yours. So who then is the possessor of the actual truth? In this book there are two time-lines: a young man in London in 1980; and an old man in Colombo today. You find out later, in the gentlest possible way, that they are one and the same person. So really, these lines should run in sequence, and only a fool would run them in parallel. I am that fool.

What would you say defines the protagonist?

There is the metaphor which runs throughout the book of water occupying a container. Water will always take the shape of the glass it is put into. The protagonist is like that water: wherever he goes, he silently and unobtrusively fits in to whatever situation he finds himself in. He also despises himself for having this quality, but there is nothing he can do about it.

How is the protagonist a reflection of your own self?

Although I must stress that this is not my story, I have used myself as a character study here: in that sense alone I am the protagonist.

What are the underlying themes of “The Professional”?

Love, time and memory. Even love changes when you look at it through the prism of memory. There are four main characters in the book. I think each of them has a very different idea of what love means to them. Let me leave it at that, or I’ll spoil the story for you!

“Ah, love,” says one of the main characters in the book. “That is something you only find when you’re not looking for it. Sometimes you have to lose it to understand that it was what you actually had.”

By Sapthika Jacob