On one level, it is the self-narrated account of a dying cricket journalist's attempt to make a documentary, and write a book, about Pradeep Mathew, who during the 1980s was Sri Lanka's most devastating and talented spin bowler, but who has mysteriously disappeared not only from the country but from the historical record he may very well be dead. Likewise, the novel has two poles, and twists enough to wrong-foot the reader. It also, in Sri Lankan argot, is a term indicating gullibility. A "Chinaman" in cricket is a particular delivery, a slower ball designed to fool the batsman into thinking it will bounce in the opposite direction to the one it does.
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