The Professional, story of a Sri Lankan man landed in trouble in London

Ashok Ferrey is back with his new novel 'The Professional'. Published by Vintage Books and priced at Rs 299, 'The Professional' is a story set in London with its protagonist Chamath who is a young Sri Lankan man. The story takes you back in the London of 1980, when Chamath, recently down from Oxford with a degree in Maths, receives a letter from his father back home.

Here is the synopsis of the book:

Couched in the most elegant of terms it basically boils down to one line: You’re on your own now, mate. The magic word ‘Oxford’ will open any door to him, his father says blithely; but there is one problem—the lack of a visa. Working on a building site as a casual labourer, he is approached by two men who ask him whether he would like ‘a bit of work after hours, to earn some dosh on the side’.
Chamath gets dragged down below the invisible grid that exists in any big city, into a bluegrey twilight world of illegals. He is hired as a male escort, a professional, a career at which he excels to his great surprise (‘there can’t be many professionals with an Oxford accent, ha ha’). He is ‘rescued’ from this existence by two former clients, an older couple (what exactly are their motives?) with disastrous consequences. The story is seen through the eyes of both Chamath and his older self, thirty-five years on, now living in Sri Lanka. The old man sees the past as a film strip, where frames have been cut out and pasted together to form a single instant. It is his job to separate these frames and re-attach them in sequence, for the film to be re-run, the life re-lived.

Masterfully told, The Professional is an exploration of the nature and meaning of love; of time, its circularity and its irreversibility; and the plain damned unreliability of what we call memory.

Ashok Ferrey’s previous books Colpetty People, The Good Little Ceylonese Girl and Serendipity were each shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize—Sri Lanka’s state literary prize and premier literary award. He is guest lecturer at the City School of Architecture and host of The Ashok Ferrey Show, an arts programme on Sri Lankan television. In his spare time he is a personal trainer.