this author writes historical fiction like nobody else. the problem is you cannot find his books. he wrote four books starting with the winds of sinhala. i was able to get the last book of the set called "The Last Sinhala Lion". i cannot find the two middle books. he also wrote a great book called "Taj", about india and the mogul who built the taj mahal.if any body reading this review can tell me where to find the two sinhala books i would be greatfull

One of the best books I have ever read. I felt transported back in time as if looking through a spy glass at trurbulent events occuring during the lifetime of the Great King. I made a trip back to Sri Lanka shortly after I read this book and as I was walking on the stone slabs around the Sri Maha Bodhiya I could almost see the Great King lying there on his death bed. I have been trying in vain to locate Colin De Silva's other books on the internet and haven't had much success.

This book has to be one of the best I read. With works as this, I am proud to call myself a sinhalese.

Mr.DeSilva takes the reader on a mixed journey of historical reality and fiction....so closely bound that one looses track.

Ali and Ripley's masterwork cannot be touched in terms of the completeness of individual descriptions, but this volume is amazing in that it draws together all the subcontinent's spp. into one book. Even so, the tome is too heavy to carry to the field. The taxonomy is updated, as is the species list. The colour illustrations are of a very high quality; my quibble is that the individual species are too small to be very useful. The maps are miniscule and that limits their utility; the use of two colours would have helped under the circumstances. Otherwise, this book is a long-awaited treasure.

Simply the best available guide to the birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Subcontinental birders have long awaited a comphrehensive guide to the birds of this region.

No other guide comes close in quality of drawings, text and range maps. Though too large and heavy to be called a field guide. It is still brought on trips to be reviewed after a day in the field.

We eagerly await the publication of this book as a true 'field guide'- that will be useable in the field.

This is the best one-volume book on the market at this time. It has very good illustrations and good species accounts that include excellent range maps. It is the only book of one volume that covers all the birds of the Indian subcontinent with this quality of illustration. The range maps are very good and there is an adequate amount of information about each bird. It's too heavy to take into the field on your trip to India, but it is an excellent reference.

This book is so rare and so precious that if one were to come across a copy in a used bookshop (which is the only place where one could realistically purchase this out-of-print book) one should not chance it on a coffee table. The photographs are of such an excellent quality, and Mr Beny has been able to capture the real essence of the island which has the alias Serendib. Particularly striking is the photograph of the line of Buddhist monks setting off on their search for alms - this really captures the mood of those who have devoted their lives to tranquility in a country which at present is anything but tranquil. A rare and delicious treat to be savoured slowly.

This is one of the most sort after books on Ceylon. It captures the essence and beauty of the island as very few photographers have been able to do. Many recent photography books on Sri Lanka have been published in colour, but none show the shades of light as these b&w photos. A wonderful coffee table book, if you can get hold of a copy.

An excellent bit of writing!! Very descriptive of life in Sri Lanka! It takes you to the scene of the stories! It is very thought provoking, and grabbed my attention from the time I started reading it. I couldn't put it down till I was done. The stories are full very detailed, and yet very simple and comprehensible.It is as good as The Reef. I would recommend it for anyone.

The stories in Monkfish Moon are in some ways typical short stories - most of them have no definite ending. But they are really immersive to read and once you start you'll find the book hard to put down. Coming from Sri Lanka, the island the author bases most of the stories in, I think the book paints a pretty realistic and poignant picture of the country and it's people. The stories are sad, thought-provoking, sometimes even downright uplifting, but are always full of color and detail. True, some people may find the book a bit boring, but they just don't have any patience or appreciation for atmosphere. Read this book even if you have no knowledge of Sri Lanka, you'll probably enjoy it.

This is an excellent book that gives a very critical and objective presentation of the way in which the Church as an institution relates itself to religio-cultural pluralism.

Though focused on Sri Lanka, the book gives an Asian vision of the Church and the challenges of religious and cultural diversity.

It deals with the current themes of inculturation and contextualization of Christianity in a particular setting.

A harmonious blending of theology and social sciences with a historico-critical vision.

Prof. A. Jeyaratnam Wilson

Colors Of The Robe: Religion, Identity, And Difference by Ananda Abeysekara (Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) is an evenhanded examination of Sri Lankan Buddhism and it's intersection between culture, religion, ethnicity, politics, and much more. Individual chapters deftly address religion and identity, as well as the scourge of violence that seems intertwined with religious differences, socio-political issues. Colors Of The Robe is a very highly recommended contribution to Buddhist Studies reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Library Journal's review of this guide: "Combining encyclopedic coverage of destinations with loads of practical information and atlas-type maps, the series illuminates the wonders of nature but emphasizes the peculiarity of a place's people and their folklore."

hello, i used to live a life of greed and confusion. now, i too, am a forest monk of Sri Lanka. thank you for connecting me to this fascinating book.

However, it is not what it's cut out to be. The use of Buddhist scripturtes to signal the start of different parts of the novel and so-called thematic unity was quite irrelevant to this novel. Comparisons with Melville or Gaddis are quite misleading as they are authors of exceptional power, complexity and difficulty. In the case of Ms Meidev you see the triumph of creative writing programmes (which one suspects she graduated from) which allow you to imitate the superficial characteristics of great writers who have no need for such programmes because they are gifted in the first place. This is not to say Ms Meidev has no talent, she does, but it is not the same; it is like saying Stephen King is as good as H.P. Lovecraft. Which is why though having been published myself and having taught creative writing, I don't think I ever want teach it again. This is a work that is a product of pure market forces: someone needs a Ondaatje read-a-like but with a different twist and so the publisher's list if fulfilled when they find one. The book is a good first effort, but there it remains. There is no serious character development, hardly any ambiguity that isn't forced and very little understanding of the people in Ceylon/Sri Lanka and what Buddhism means in their lives. This is more a work of an expatriate who lives in the East for awhile and returns to the West to write about their sojourn hoping to dispel the Occident's "easy" catgorisation of the Orient, but thereby ironically reinforcing that lack of understanding and empathy. Read Melville, Conrad, Green, Gaddis or Toni Morrison for a more authentic go at this.

Finally - a solidly good read! What a relief. I had thought I would have to forever decamp to nonfiction. But here is a fascinating tale, deftly woven. Thank you!

Ms. Meidav's debut novel is a great book by a young promising author. As she takes you on this journey, and though she hints all along at the main character's trajectory, you are drawn into not only his world but into the inner lives of the villagers she depicts so successfully. Rather than romanticise the virtues of the east, Meidav trains her eye at a wide range of three-dimensional characters so that we come to see both aspirations and hypocrisies within American, English, and, yes, Sri Lankan culture. In this way, she truly gives another culture its due. Perhaps we find ourselves in many of the characters, all of whom I found engaging and rich in their human passions, all of whom I found true (if this is a useful word to apply in fiction) to a certain kind of subcontinental life, one that I was born into but which I have never seen so fully explored. Meidav's novel is a novel in the biggest sense of the word. It offers old-fashioned pleasures, a real world to enter, but with a contemporary pacing. It also lets the reader explore new ideas (about desire, grasping, human connection, cultures meeting and clashing) and does this all in a new style, something I have never quite seen before. Reading it, I thought about the truism that all original work will in its own time get scorned by those who are most interested in upholding convention. The book will appeal to those who have some interest in the East or Eastern culture, but also to those with an interest in what it means to be born within a certain culture and to travel away from it/toward it. It's not a history of Ceylon nor a scholarly study of Buddhism, but rather what struck me as an exploration of how hard it is for humans to connect and see one another across many divides, whether that of culture or of character. This is art, as the word artifice suggests. Picasso says art is the lie that makes us see the truth; this is how Ms. Meidav uses her art, to develop her characters, and yes, indeed we come to know the main character in his full depth as well as his auxiliaries. We know the protagonist's desires and dreams, as well as his inner conflicts. We may not like the protagonist, but like any great and memorable fictional character, he has a life beyond mere psychobabble. His true motives, like most of ours, contain their conflicts. I am looking forward to other work by this same author. I am a great fan of diving into a world as complete as the one which this novel offers us. Reading this book for me was a life-changing experience, a journey that makes me want to travel it one more time.

We are trying to get an "island" feel for our home and this book was the perfect reference. Not only are the pictures of the homes (inside and out) breathtaking, but there is enough detail about the decorating itself to be useful for our purpose. The only downside is that it makes you want to sell your current house and just travel the world staying in these amazing homes! Especially tempting is the contact information at the very end in case you actually want to rent one of them on vacation...

I found this to be a wonderful book - it has some amazing pictures. It affords you the opportunity to view some beautiful private houses that you are unlikely to be able to visit. Unlike some other books that focus primarily on houses in South East Asia, this one also features some great houses in Mexico and Jamaica.

Tropical Houses takes you around the globe to find some of the most interestingly designed homes in the world. The photographs are at once detailed and lush. If you are going to buy one book on tropical interiors, this should be the one.