"Brusasco achieves the aim of re-directing theoretical assumptions about the two authors' works to the benefit of both academic and non specialist audiences, thus re-positioning Sri Lankan literature in the ever-growing context of South Asian studies in English. Ondaatje's "The English Patient", "Running in the Family", and, most prominently, "Anil's Ghost", as well as Muller's "Burgher trilogy" and "Colombo: A Novel", are here analyzed in the light of the writings by Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault, Homi Bhabha, Edward Said, and Hayden White. Quite original is the discourse on language—that is, translatability—looked at from cross-cultural and deconstructionist perspectives which include the debate around domesticating and foreignizing otherness, the difficult relation between Sinhala and Tamil in Sri Lanka, the controversial local variety of English, and its implications at the social level."

Paola Brusasco holds a PhD in English Studies and has taught English Language and Translation at the University of Turin (Italy). Her main research interests are Post-colonial Studies and Translation Studies. She has published a number of articles, mainly, but not exclusively, on Sri Lankan writing in English with particular focus on issues of identity, human rights, and child soldiers in works by M. Ondaatje, R. Gunesekera, C. Muller, Shobasakthi, and has translated into Italian both classics (e.g. E. Brontë's "Wuthering Heights", R. L. Stevenson's "Olalla") and works by contemporary authors such as J. Clement, C. Davidson, and R. Banks.

Acknowledgements
Preface by Geetha Ganapathy-Doré
Introduction
1. Cartography and Mapping
2. The Making of History
3. Language and Translation
4. Writing Within/Without/About Sri Lanka
Conclusions
Bibliography