The mid-seventies were a crucial period of time for the tiny Indian Ocean country of Sri Lanka. A mismanaged and stagnant economy, corrupt political system, ethnic unrest, and many other issues changed the country and society drastically during this time. Most people consider seventies the precursor to the brutal civil war in Sri Lanka that lasted for next 30 years.

Against this backdrop, in a very middle-class family living in a suburb of the capital city of Colombo, a teenage boy, Saman meets his first love, Savi. Having grown up in a sheltered middle-class Sri Lankan society, as adults, they are about to face the realities of a very stratified society, which will profoundly change their lives. The story of The Sounds of Distant Waves is what happens to them and their friends in these circumstances.

It is a tale of middle-class Sri Lanka told with affection, nostalgia, laughter and sadness, and painted on a canvas in vivid tropical colours. It offers the reader a glimpse into a time gone by in a far-off land that most outsiders regard as a tropical paradise. It is a story that resonates with the melodies and rhythms of never-ending waves breaking on a beautiful tropical seashore.

This story has been tightly and effortlessly woven between real and imaginary worlds in such a fashion that even readers who have experienced this time period, and those who were closely associated with the places and events that figure prominently in this tale, will find it hard to separate fact from fiction. 

This is Sunil Tantirige’s second book.  His first book, The House of a Thousand Memories, was an autobiographical account of his life in Sri Lanka, where he was born and raised.  It was published in 2019. Sunil now lives in Toronto.