- Dilshan Boange on the art of fiction and his latest book
His first book, released in 2010, was a collection of short stories and literary commentary. He has since released three other books, his most recent being The Last Latte, which was based on a short story in his second book, a collection of poetry and short stories.
Ever since his childhood, Boange has always wanted to be a writer; he loved anything to do with reading and books, and was drawn to it from an early age. When he got selected to the Arts Faculty at Colombo University, he thought it would be a stepping stone for him to achieve his ambition of becoming a writer because it gave him a lot of insight on understanding literature from an academic sense to how great literature is created.
In conversation with Brunch, he expressed that what made him become a writer was his fondness for books from an early age and his ambition to become one from childhood.
The Last Latte, as a short story, was developed looking at the economical and social factors that were taking place in Colombo based on the urban context about five years ago. Upon rereading this story, Boange saw the potential for a larger story that could be developed based on how things were developing in Sri Lanka based on the Chinese infrastructure projects and the Indian influence coming into the country.
Thus, he began to explore how it could resonate with the current situation and development based on what he could see.
“The book is not set in an optimistic or pleasant scenario. It is set in a world where India starts having border clashes and expands to the point where they’re on the verge of a nuclear war,” Boange described. In his book, Sri Lanka is facing a lockdown, but not one that is induced by a pandemic, rather one based on military curfew where Colombo is caught in the midst of a hostile situation between China and India. The book paints a picture of people scrambling to evacuate Colombo and Chinese and Indian aircrafts flying ahead, about to engage in an aerial war. He further added that in the book, both China and India are fighting for Sri Lanka in hopes of using the country for their military purposes.
“The story is told by two friends in what used to be the largest upscale coffee house that has long since been abandoned. The two characters; one being the owner of the cafe and the other being his best friend since childhood come from affluent families in Colombo,” he told us, adding that the one character chose to remain in Colombo for sentimental reasons and held on to the small strand of hope that the situation would turn around and the country would go back to normal, while the other tries to convince his friend to leave the city with him.
Boange highlights that the story has an underlying theme of sentimentalism, where the characters are unable to grasp that life as they knew it was over and instead chose to cling to a small hope that the world would return to its original state; much like the current situation in Sri Lanka in the real world. He also incorporated Colombo theatre into his book, by way of making the coffee shop a hotspot for plays, even naming a few affluent plays in order to create an idea of the country’s apocalyptic future.
When talking about the title of the book: The Last Latte, he explained that these two friends came together to have just one latte, as there just so happened to be enough ingredients left in the coffee shop for it. He added that it was meant to be symbolic; a toast and a farewell to the world that they once knew. Boange did tell us the ending of the book, but we'll leave that for you to find out once you get your hands on a copy. What we can say is that it is a rather negative and poetic ending that will no doubt evoke a sense of longing and nostalgia in the reader.
The biggest challenge Boange faced when writing this novel was getting a convincing angle on the story as it is a fictional piece of work. “I wanted the story to resonate with the readers at this point in time because this is something Sri Lankans should be more aware and concerned about,” he commented, adding that the way that the geopolitical situation is taking shape, we can only hope that this fictional Sri Lanka never comes out in real life. With the book, he hopes to highlight the way that the Government deals with these two regional superpowers (India and China) as, in his opinion, it's not going to go well for Sri Lanka if we keep allowing the Chinese to dominate the country and Indians raising concern about this. “I want to bring that out as much as possible in my book, without it being a political commentary. I built the story in a way where people could relate to the situation based on characters with sentimental approaches,” he stated.
He also commented, when talking about the message behind the novel, that he used the vibrant theatre culture and the coffee house culture in order to capture a human essence in the story, and show that all these aspects that we enjoy in life are affected by the political situation and raise the readers concern about the situation. Of course, this led to many days of research in order for him to learn about the exact situation in the country; “I read many newspapers and searched online to get my facts right in various pressing issues that are affecting Sri Lanka on economical and political factors.” This is narrated, not by the characters’ discussion, but by the situation they are set in. Through his book, he attempts to show Sri Lanka the repercussions of such a situation in terms of Colombo’s urban culture vanishing and the bleak situation we may face in the future.
Boange expressed adding that writing is not simply about finding your voice, it’s also about finding the reader in you. He stated that his writing so far as a fiction writer has taken him to experiment with different styles of writing. Sharing some advice to aspiring writers, he said: “At a certain point, you need to figure out what genres attract you; be it science fiction, fantasy fiction or literary books; it is important to find out which genre connects to you and understand what kind of story you could narrate that you, yourself would enjoy reading.” He personally believes that as a writer, one needs to imagine themselves as the reader in order to tell how well you can spin a story to yourself. He further added that how convincing and attractive that story needs to be, is something that the writer needs to focus on and not assume that the role of the reader has nothing to do with you. “If you find that your work as a writer does not resonate with the reader in you, then it is something that you need to work on,” he expressed, adding that once you start out as a writer, you need to figure out what you want to accomplish with your work.