W.G. Karunasena, a retired sportswriter, is passing away. His final months will be spent searching for Pradeep S. Mathew, the elusive spin bowler he believes to be "the greatest cricketer to walk the world," while also consuming arrack, displeasing his wife and kid. W.G. discovers a coach with six fingers, a hidden bunker beneath a renowned stadium, an LTTE commander, and shocking realities about Sri Lanka, cricket, and himself while searching for this unappreciated brilliance. Chinaman is a novel about cricket and Sri Lanka and of Sri Lanka through its cricket. It is ambitious, amusing, and remarkably original. It is a remarkable book, hailed by the Gratiaen Prize judges as "one of the most inventive pieces of current Sri Lankan fiction."