CHINAMAN the Legend of Pardeep Mathew

By: Kashaf Mansoor

Lahore Literary Festival held at Alhamra Art Centre on 23rd and 24th Feb. 2013 was organized to revive art and culture of Lahore.

In conversation with Sehan Karunatilaka, Owen Bennett Jones (the moderator) discussed Sehan’s debut novel Chinaman; The Legend of Pardeep Mathew. Sehan talked about the narrator of book, who is an alcoholic sports writer WG (Wije Karunasena) and he struggles to find the missing cricketer’s of 1980s. WG has been told by doctors that he should not drink otherwise he will die within a month but the problem was that he couldn’t write without drinking. ”.

He was Deaf to the protests of his wife but at last Wije decided to finish drinking before his liver fails to work and he admits that life is not like cricket field & that WG loves his wife Sheila. Sehan read a paragraph from his book in which Sheila asks WG that do you love cricket more or do you love me, he answered in humorous way that he likes cricket but he likes his wife more.

Chinaman is about Pradeep Mathew who was a talented spinner but his career was influenced by terrorism, politics, and racism.

Sehan Karunatilaka said “Chinaman was supposed to be a detective novel.”  He further narrated that in his childhood, he used to play cricket with his elder brother on the streets. He indulged himself in cricket and he us to think for several hours on how to bowl and how would he play better, But after years he realized that life is not only about cricket.