Announcing Tuk-Tuk Stories — the first book from the Suriyakantha Literary Residency

We are delighted to unveil the very first book to owe its every stage to Suriyakantha.

Earlier this year, we launched a residency programme for creatives, and our Kandy-based heritage home had the privilege of welcoming Guilhem Beugnon as the first occupant of the residence. Beugnon is a French regional historian and a devoted connoisseur of Sri Lanka, where he spent several years in the late 1990s. His 2026 journey, however, was his first return in thirty years.
Together with his travelling companion, Guilhem crossed the country and, during his ten-day stay at Suriyakantha, shaped it all into a set of closely knitted vignettes.

First shared as a WhatsApp series, the collection of short accounts caught the eye of Janaka Samarakoon, director of Suriyakantha and a contented member of Guilhem's WhatsApp group, who encouraged the author to gather them into a book. From this collaboration was born the English translation of Tuk-Tuk Stories.

The book is also among the very first titles to appear under the newly founded Éditions Suriyakantha.

While the original French edition is due this winter, we are happy to present the English version of Tuk-Tuk Stories, translated by Janaka Samarakoon in close collaboration with Guilhem Beugnon.

The book can be purchased at Suriyantha, Kandy and online worldwide.

Tuk-Tuk Stories

by Guilhem Beugnon (Author), Janaka Samarakoon (Translator)  | Format: Paperback

Thirty years later, Sri Lanka was waiting for me. Elephants still crossed the roads. Lotuses still bloomed on the ponds. Crows went on pilfering. I alone had changed. I had left the island with hair; I came back with only the memory of it.

There I had known days of initiation, surfing from smile to smile, from Buddhist stūpas to Hindu kovils, from palatial hotels to dingy inns, from rambutans to mangosteens, from curries to biryanis.

And I fell under its spell all over again.

Read sample