Funny Boy (34 page)
Authors: Shyam Selvadurai
A first novel is often more of a group effort than is generally realized. I would, therefore, like to thank:
My family for their patience with me during the writing of
Funny Boy
. Especially my aunt, Bunny De Silva, for screening my calls and for keeping me well fed.
Fernando Sa-Pereira for his editorial advice and his belief in my abilities during the “formative years” in Montreal. Many of his invaluable suggestions are incorporated in this book.
Steve Pereira, Tony Stephenson, and Caesar Blake for their feedback on the initial drafts of this book.
Manel Fonseka for opening so many doors, even ones that I’d thought would be firmly shut.
Mr. and Mrs. Alles and family for their hospitality.
Ellen Seligman at McClelland and Stewart, with whom editing has been such a pleasure.
Dan Franklin at Jonathan Cape in London.
My agents, Lucinda Vardey in Canada and Carolyn Brunton in England, for believing so much in the book.
The Ontario Arts Council.
“Pigs Can’t Fly” appeared in
The Toronto South Asian Review
and in
Meanwhile, in Another Part of the Forest: Gay Stories from Alice Munro to Yukio Mishima
, edited by Alberto Manguel and Craig Stephenson (Knopf Canada).
Shyam Selvadurai was born in 1965 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He came to Canada with his family at the age of nineteen. He has studied creative writing and theatre, and has a B.F.A. from York University.
His first novel,
Funny Boy
(1994), was a national bestseller, winner of the W. H. Smith/
Books in Canada
First Novel Award and The Lambda Literary Award in the U.S., and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association.
Cinnamon Gardens
(1998), his second novel, was a finalist for the Trillium Award. It has been published in the U.S., the U.K., India, and numerous countries in Europe. Selvadurai is also the author of a young adult novel,
Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
(2005), a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, and the editor of
Story-Wallah: A Celebration of South Asian Fiction
(2004).
Shyam Selvadurai lives in Toronto.