The late 1980s was so many lifetimes ago in Sri Lankan politics the novel felt like historical fiction, Karunatilaka said, while its talking animals and demons helped insulate him too. His book is set during the civil war in the author's homeland, with the plot a way to talk about the long-running conflict without inviting controversy.

In Seven Moons, the main character Maali Almeida, a photographer, gambler and 'closet queen', wakes up as a ghost with seven days to find out who killed him. 'I am looking forward to the circus dying down and going back to my boring life of sitting in a room and writing.' 'I am enjoying it but it's not the natural setting - the natural setting is sitting by yourself in a room for years on end,' he said.

It's meant he's only done two or three days of writing in six months. It's all part of a mad ride that has seen magical-realist The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida find a massive global audience (his first novel Chinaman was aimed at cricket tragics). Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.Happily for Karunatilaka, he's staying in the trendy suburb of Fitzroy ahead of his appearance at the Melbourne Writers Festival on Friday night.

On his quest he will also uncover a coach with six fingers, a secret bunker below a famous stadium, a Tamil Tiger warlord, and startling truths about Sri Lanka, cricket and himself.Winner of the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. Hailed by the Gratiaen Prize judges as 'one of the most imaginative works of contemporary Sri Lankan fiction', it is an astounding book. Ambitious, playful and strikingly original, Chinaman is a novel about cricket and Sri Lanka - and the story of modern day Sri Lanka through its most cherished sport. On his quest to find this unsung genius, WG uncovers a coach with six fingers, a secret bunker below a famous stadium, a Tamil Tiger warlord, and startling truths about Sri Lanka, cricket and himself. Mathew, a spin bowler who has mysteriously disappeared and who WG considers 'the greatest cricketer to walk the earth'. He will spend his final months drinking arrack, making his wife unhappy, ignoring his son and tracking down Pradeep S. Retired sportswriter WG Karunasena is dying.

Chinaman by shehan