Sri Lanka It's Happening

September 17, 2007

in 1998 My father won the State Literary Award for best English novel for his Kat Bitha. Kat Bitha, a story about Sigiriya was his first novel. Now nine years later he has won the same award for his ninth book the Eavesdropper.

This has been a specially good year for him. His Chandraratnege Bawanthara Charikawa was shortlisted for the Godage award and for the Swarna Pusthaka Award as well. The Swarna Pusthaka Award was shared between the five short listed authors. That means my father Daya Dissanayake probably becomes the only person ever to win two awards the same year for novels written in two different languages.

In all probability no one anywhere in the world has done so either. It would have been really great if Moonstone, the English version of Chandraratnege Bawanthara Charikawa won the state literary award but this is good enough.