Saraid de Silva (she/her) is a Sri Lankan/Pakeha writer living in Tamaki Makaurau, Aotearoa New Zealand. Saraid has worked as an actor, theatre-maker, voiceover artist. In 2022, she graduated from Auckland University's Creative Writing Masters and became the inaugural winner of the Crystal Arts Trust Prize.
She has also released three seasons of the documentary series Conversations With My Immigrant Parents for Radio New Zealand with co-creator Julie Zhu, and works as a writer for NZ's prime-time soap opera, Shortland Street.
Amma has been praised by Diet Paratha, NZ Poet Laureate Chris Tse and Spinoff. It was also nominated for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction.
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“Annie Ano Fernando doesn’t care much for men”
And so begins a novel exploring trauma, displacement, queerness over three generations and three continents of the Sri Lankan diaspora.
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1951, Singapore. Ten-year-old Josephina kills her abuser.
This event becomes the defining moment in the lives of Josephina, her daughter Sithara, and her granddaughter Annie.
The effects cascade through generations as Annie sets out across the world to discover what happened to fracture her family.
Set in Sri Lanka, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and London, Amma is a novel about how the past lives with us forever, and wherever we are.
Written in sensuous, vivid prose, Amma is a story of the rich history and unknown future of the Sri Lankan diaspora - and of one family desperately trying to find peace.