The author Shyam Selvadurai discusses his new novel, The Hungry Ghosts (Doubleday, 2013), with Joseph Planta.

The Hungry Ghosts by Shyam Selvadurai (Doubleday, 2013). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Hungry Ghosts

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

The acclaimed author Shyam Selvadurai joins me now. He’s just published his latest novel, his third: The Hungry Ghosts. In it, Shivan is a man in his early thirties, who has to bridge the gaps in his life. He’s got a dying grandmother in Sri Lanka, who one reviewer called one of “the most complex and believable Asian female characters” she’d read lately. They have a fraught relationship. He’s got to bridge the gap between his native Sri Lanka and his adopted homeland of Canada. Shivan also has to deal with his sexuality in the context of his family and their cultural background, and being a homosexual in 1980s Canada. I’ll get Mr. Selvadurai to tell us about this book, his characters, and perhaps to enlighten us to the two pressing questions that most interviewers might have for him: Why so long between this book and his previous one, Cinnamon Gardens? And how much of him is in this new book, as he perhaps was in his first book nearly twenty years ago, Funny Boy. The website for more is at www.shyamselvadurai.com. The Hungry Ghosts is published by Doubleday. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Shyam Selvadurai; Mr. Selvadurai, good morning.

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