All in the family

A generational journey that spans from Colombo and London to Invercargill introduces a new Kiwi writer.

- ANGELIQUE KASMARA

There's a deceptively simple scene in Amma, the debut novel of Saraid de Silva, that says much about relationships, family history and all their complex dynamics. The gentle unfolding during a meal of Sri Lankan takeaways reveals (among other insights) that nobody in the family has picked up any culinary skills from Josephina, the Amma of the title: she always shooed everyone out of the kitchen when cooking.

Amma never learnt how to cook from her own mother but she did from Inesh Uncle and Suji Aunty, two siblings she boarded with when she arrived in Colombo in 1968. They gave her a sense of security she never felt from her parents, conveyed through their cooking sessions.