In the end, our narrator cannot finish his book, because he cannot stay away from drinking, or his own failures. What he finds is a world of thugs, booze, gambling, questionable honour, national interests that might be opposed to the truth, and a web of lies, half-truths, observed falsehoods, cheating and gamesmanship. The novel documents, in first-person narrative, the attempts of its alcoholic writer to reclaim the legacy of one bowler, Pradeep Mathew – never mind that this same narrator might be attempting to recover his own lost greatness by discovering another's. In 2022, the novel was included on the ' Big Jubilee Read' list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. In April 2019, Chinaman was voted among the best cricket books ever by Wisden. Published to great acclaim in India and the UK, the novel was among the Waterstones 11 selected by British bookseller Waterstones as one of the top debuts of 2011 and was also shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize. It also won the 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, and the 2008 Gratiaen Prize.

On, Chinaman was announced as the regional winner for Asia of the Commonwealth Book Prize and went on to win the overall Commonwealth Book Prize announced on 8 June.

The novel was critically hailed on publication, winning awards and much positive review coverage. Using cricket as a device to write about Sri Lankan society, the book tells the story of an alcoholic journalist's quest to track down a missing cricketer of the 1980s. 2012 DSC Prize for South Asian LiteratureĬhats with the Dead / The Seven Moons of Maali AlmeidaĬhinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew is a 2010 novel by Shehan Karunatilaka.

Legend of pradeep mathew