Sessions at Fairway Galle Literary Festival 2016
Amitav Ghosh
“Nobody reads novels for research” laughs Amitav Gosh, “but for me, reading for research gives me great pleasure!”
At his session, Amitav Gosh spoke in length about his Ibis Triology; Sea of Poppies, River of Smoke, and Flood of Fire. The story is set in the 19th Century and deals with the trade of opium between India and China run by the East India Company.
His session and ideas sparked a passionate debate on the Opium wars. “Opium wars laid the foundation of modern globalisation” says he.
The audience responded with enthusiasm asking questions one after another.
Layla
What he said was very interesting and very relavent to the book he has written and it’s interesting how much research goes into it. The fact that the characters never leave, they just evolve is something like art. It was very interesting.
Kanchana and Manikya
It was interesting. We read a couple of the books. He was good and the audience questions were good.
In Conversation : Anuradha Roy
Anuradha Roy spoke about her award winning book ‘Sleeping on Jupiter’ and how her own life influenced bits and pieces of the book and its characters. One of the three old women, Gouri, in particular, was influenced by an aunt who suffered from Alzheimer’s.
“People who knew me didn’t think I could write a book like this” she says as she explains how much of a leap into the unknown this book was for her, “I tried many times to put this book aside.”
The book deals with several controversial and gripping themes of which sexual abuse is one of the main topics in the plot. “I had to read quite a bit about sexual abuse and that can be very hard and very dark” shares Anuradha when asked about the amount of research involved in writing this book.
Delving into the book, its process and a little on how she often gets confused with Arundhati Roy, Roy’s session was insightful and engaging.
Zara
It was great. Excellent job in asking the right questions. I’m looking forward to reading the book.
Jenny
I would have liked to have Anuradha talk more. I wish I read the books before I came but l must read it now.
Martin
It went well.
In Conversation : Andrea Schenkel
“I write crime fiction but I don’t read crime fiction” jokes Andrea Schenkel, German author of ‘Murder Farm’ and ‘Ice Cold’. Andrea held a full house of festival goers captive as she spoke about her books and what it is like to write crime fiction. “A detective is rather like a vampire!” she says.
Andrea’s novel ‘Murder Farm’ was inspired by real life events, of a family in a small Bavarian village that gets killed in one night. It is a story that has been published in over 20 languages and was the stepping stone that drove Andrea to become an award winning novelist.
Her second book ‘Ice Cold’ was story about a serial killer in Munich, Germany and it is from that particular book that Andrea chose to read an expert from at the session. The expert itself was particularly bone chilling as she describes an execution in vivid detail. She explains that she ‘wants death penalty for the real killers’ but in general ‘doesn’t believe in revenge’. The book was her way of achieving the outcome she thought was right in this particular scenario.
Thinking Out Loud : Fiona Shaw
“I switched off my phone and I told everyone not to bother me” shares Shyam Selvarudai as he opens the session for Fiona Shaw.
Fiona Shaw, renowned actress and director drew in a full house for her session ‘Shakespeare and friends, Ibsen and enemies’. She spoke of language and called Shakespeare ‘the Google of language’ as she spoke of his work and his ability to create words from transforming verbs into nouns, nouns into verbs.
The session continued as she spoke of the evolution of language, about text and subtext, the tones of language (apparently Sri Lankans are a C sharp because we are more emotional!) and of how different people changed the use of language as a whole.
She then continues to perform an excellent rendition of experts from Samuel Beckett’s ‘Footfalls’ and T.S. Elliot’s ‘Wasteland’ proceeding to show us how she could very well be her own one woman show.
Shaw’s session was captivating and stimulating, her ability to connect with the audience made her talk entertaining and lively.
Afterwards we caught up with a few audience members to see what they thought;
Radika
It was brilliant. Absolutely enjoyed it. She was very fluent in her language.
Gayle
It was amazing. She was very dramatic and wonderfully spoken and her use of language is brilliant.
Tanya
It was brilliant and she was just so smart. I just really honoured to have witnessed her.
Saba Douglas Hamilton
“Did you know? Ronald is back in the reserve and he seems rather interested in Cleopatra! That was before Abraham came in of course”
This is a typical dinner conversation for Saba Douglas Hamilton. But who might Ronald, Cleopatra and Abraham be? Elephants.
In her session, Saba speaks about her research in Africa and shares her experience of what it’s like to live tolerantly and peacefully with wild elephants. She speaks of ivory poaching and explains the extensive projects done by the Elephant Crisis Foundation to prevent poaching of ivory.
She proudly announces that on the 26th of January, an ivory burning session will take place enough and as she concludes her session, she speaks with emotion that the ‘end of ivory poaching can’t come soon enough’.
Veronica
It was fantastic. Very interesting. I always knew ivory poaching is a terrible thing but this hits the spot.
Dharshi
I anyway knew about elephants but the way she spoke made me think of them as magical creatures. Made me realize how important elephants are in wildlife and how important their lives are and how we should say no to ivory poaching.
By Panchali Illankoon
Photographs by Pradeep Dilrukshana and Waruna Wanniarachchi
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