Sri Lankan author Ashok Ferrey on his new novel Hot Butter Cuttlefish

Writing about COVID-19 in fiction is no easy task, especially without letting the narrative slip into something heavy or grim. Award-winning Sri Lankan writer Ashok Ferry uses humour to navigate the subject in his new book Hot Butter Cuttlefish (published by Penguin). He argues that humour remains an underrated literary tool, particularly in South Asian writing. At the Ceylon Literary & Arts Festival in February, where we met, he reflected on what it means to be Sri Lankan, describing his approach as a “cowardly” way of presenting it to readers. Edited excerpts:

Question: What’s the story behind the title of the book?