Manuka Wijesinghe is the author of the Lankan trilogy Monsoons and Potholes, Theravada Man and Sinhala Only. Having completed it, she swore to return to a life of living and not of writing where every thought, action, incident and coincidence eventually flows, like drops of water, into the broad river that culminates in her books – but destiny decided otherwise. She could not give up writing without trying to understand why her nation, the proud recipient of the Buddha’s philosophy of non-violence, could kill nearly three generations of its children, both Tamil and Sinhalese. One for being a terrorist and the other for a soldier. Death is the same, be it a soldier or a terrorist for the tears of a mother has the same texture, making no difference, if she is Tamil or Sinhalese. 

This search culminated in her last book, Like Moths to a Flame, which received the State Literary Award for 2022. 

Manuka Wijesinghe is also a poet, playwright, actress, dancer and a practitioner of the Healing Arts. She hopes that work, be it writing or healing, will contribute to a better world. She believes that only a healthy body can create a healthy mind which rejects avarice and war and yearns for a peaceful life over a heroic death. In death, there is no heroism, just grief; the bedrock of her country. 

Top Titles

• Monsoons & Potholes (originally published 2006, revised edition 2024)

• Sinhala Only (2014)

• Theravada Man (2020)
• Like Moths to a Flame (2022)