READING · JANUARY 1, 2024

Slow Sad Suicide of Rohan Wijeratne

A short sci-fi novella by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne about a rich kid with a death wish who signs up for a suicide mission into a black hole, featuring well-researched black hole physics and Sri Lankan cultural touchpoints.

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I’m quite embarrassed to admit that this is the first book of Yudhanjaya Wijeratne’s that I’ve read. I met him once at a hackathon in Colombo many years ago, before he became an author, and was immediately impressed by his brilliance and non-stop spouting of ideas. It just so happened that I was on a flight and saw that I had the ebook on my phone and started randomly reading it. It’s a very short novella so even for a slow reader like myself it was finish-able on a two hour flight. Like a very filling snack. And if was up to Yudha to think of one, it’d be prawn toast paired with two shots of arrack.

The story follows Rohan, a rich kid with a death wish who lives in the not too distant future. His multiple suicide attempts throughout his life have failed because in the future, if you’re rich you get pumped with nannites in your bloodstream from a young age that makes your body heal super fast from injuries. Rohan is just annoying enough as a character to not make him off putting that it balances off the charm from the dry cynical humour that drives him.

Rohan’s wish comes true when he signs up for this international space exploration program that plans to send some brave volunteers into a black hole–a definite suicide mission. I went into the story having no idea what it’s about but was very pleasantly surprised to get a very well researched explanation of black hole physics juxtaposed with witty quips and inner thoughts of a character who doesn’t give two shits about “Clarke moments” of awe and wonder, and instead is more interested in his oncoming doom.

I was in Sri Lanka just a few months ago and had quite a bit of arrack, the island’s signature spirit made from coconuts. The drink gets mentioned quite a bit in the story, as well as other touch points to give the science fiction a very grounded Sri Lankan feel.

I know Terry Prachett is one of Yudha’s favourite authors and I can totally get that vibe from this story. Also Gaiman at his most cheeky.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo of a Penrose diagram and it put a smile on my face to see that this book, in the footnotes has an actual Penrose diagram in it, explaining what a Kerr singularity is. Maybe I just don’t read too much fiction, but other than Nolan’s Interstellar, this little novella has the best actual science about black holes in fiction that I’ve encountered.

Yudhanjaya has grown into one of Sri Lanka’s brightest new literary stars these days, and it’s just a joy to read his first foray into fiction. You bet I will be reading every other book of his this year.

© 2025 Yan Naung Oak.