Homesick

Praise from the UK:

“Roshi Fernando is a powerful new voice . . . [In Homesick,] charm, humour and poignancy alternate with dark trials . . . The book offers complex, mosaic characters and compelling storylines . . . Fernando’s insight, wit, sensitivity and versatility mark her as a striking new talent.”
—Leyla Sanai, The Independent
 
“Tender, uplifting and funny.”
—Sophie Martelli, The Observer
 
“It is notoriously difficult to capture an authentic immigrant voice.  [Homesick] manage[s] it brilliantly . . . A debut that can confidently sit alongside the likes of Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and Andrea Levy’s Small Island. . . . [Homesick] address[es] the trials of marriage, the coming to terms with sexuality and the need to find an identity in terms that are universal to all.”
—Francesca Angelini, The Sunday Times
 
“Fernando’s observations are fresh and her style sharp. She can recreate a whole childhood’s worth of low-key resentment in a couple of lines . . . Fernando is serious but never earnest; her compassion for her misguided characters is infectious, and the book leaves you with an uplifting glow.”
—Jake Kerridge, Literary Review
 
“Exuberant . . . A rambunctious portrait of an extended Sri Lankan family in south London . . . as addictive as any full-length book by Vikram Seth or Michael Ondaatje.”
—Arminta Wallace, The Irish Times
 
“Everyone in Homesick seeks to belong—to a place, a community—and Fernando portrays their plight with a tenderness that extends to the very structure of [her book] . . . Home, in Fernando’s world, is not a resting place, but rather the dream of a ritual, both inherited and of our own invention.”
—Emily Stokes, Financial Times