McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, 1997, 1^st pr.  ISBN 0-7710-7951-6.  Trade soft cover, 316 pages including Glossary and Acknowledgements.  Unread remaindered copy, touch of glue on top edge and stray mark on fore-edge and rear wrap.  Winner of the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award and The Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Men’s Fiction.  ‘… debut novel, a boy’s bittersweet passage to maturity and sexual awakening is set against escalating political tensions in Sri Lanka … It is through his eyes that the story unfolds and we meet a delightful, sometimes eccentric cast of characters.  Arjie’s journey from the luminous simplicity of childhood days into the more intricately shaded world of adults – with its secrets, its injustices, and its capacity for violence – is a memorable one, as time and time again the true longings of the human heart are held against the way things are.’ (from rear wrap)