We chat with author Amanda Jayatissa about Island Witch , which follows the daughter of a traditional demon-priest—relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself—who tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorising her coastal village.
A lot has changed since then! We’ve moved from Sri Lanka to Portugal, so that’s probably the biggest news. And of course, I’ve written something a little different from my usual contemporary thrillers. Apart from that, it’s been the same— reading, writing, and entertaining my two huskies.
Rage-y, feminist, gothic, anti-colonial horror (Wow, that was a mouthful!)
A dark coming-of-age tale set in British-colonial Ceylon, featuring demons, curses, and an exorcism or two.
In 1880s Ceylon, Amara, the daughter of the local demon priest is caught in the cross currents of her traditional beliefs and the new colonial ideas that have been brought into her coastal town, while being bullied and called a “witch” herself. When a series of attacks starts plaguing the men in her village, she must figure out who is behind them before her father is accused of these crimes. However, she’s been having dreams which eerily predict these attacks, and can’t shake the feeling that all this is tied into to when she woke up, dazed and confused, to the sound of her mother’s cries that no one can find out what happened.
I don’t explicitly mention it in the book, but Island Witch is my version of an origin story for Sri Lanka’s most popular ghost— Mohini. Mohini is Sri Lanka’s “Woman in White,” a lonely white-clad figure who asks solitary passers-by for help, only to kill, or posses, or harm them— her story has many versions. I’ve always been fascinated by this folk-tale, but it never sat well with me that no one knew anything more about Mohini— where she came from, or why she did what she did. So I set about the task of giving her a story.
The story starts with an exorcism, and I definitely had a fun time researching and writing that— especially since exorcisms in popular culture are usually portrayed from a western perspective, I had a really good time demonstrating how this ritual was practiced in Sri Lanka. It involved me speaking to local demon priests and attending one myself, so it was definitely an interesting time.
Island Witch is told from the perspective of an 18 year old girl from a lower class family who lived in a coastal fishing village. Right off the bat, I knew I had a problem— there was absolutely no historic reference material I could find from the same perspective. Most text from this time period was written by the British, the few by local writers were all upperclass Sinhalese, and certainly nothing was written by women. But of course, this only fuelled me to write this story. I found as much text written about women and their daily activities, and had to extrapolate from there. I also worked with a few historians to make sure I represented the finer details correctly.
See also Q&A: Codi Hall, Author of ‘Along Came Holly’
I’ve always loved mystery, thrillers, and horror. Growing up in Sri Lanka, Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books were very popular, and that’s probably where I got my love of mysteries. Even now, my favourite types of books involve solving something. I suppose I write in this genre because thrillers are my favourite genre to read.
A big lesson for me has been that the process of writing every book has been different. Each book came with its own unique set of challenges, and trying to solve them the same way only led to more struggles. I’ve learned that I do my best writing when I let the stories breathe— when I remove all my pre-conceived ideas and just start writing.
I can’t discuss it in detail yet, but I can promise you that there will always be a dead body or two.
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