…… a remarkable account of a journey into the past and the present. It is also an act of stark confrontation: wilful, alarming, and poignant.

John Fraser

Editor, Saturday Night

This is both an original and a compulsively readable book. The author has blended the story of his pursuit of the leopard in Sri Lanka with the pursuit of his own past. He has mingled adventure with reflection, history with legend, in a fascinating and revealing personal narrative.

Charles Ritchie

Author, The Siren Years

A delightful book. Anyone who takes it up will devour it with relish on one glorious sitting of excitement and anticipation, wishing it would never end. When I read it, an overpowering nostalgia brought back fragrant memories.

What is remarkable about this book is the lissom grace with which the author shuttles back and forth through kaleidoscopic scenes of sunshine and shadow, laughter and tears, culminating in his impassioned journey to the little village of Punanai where once upon a time a man-eating leopard struck terror into the hearts of its gentle inhabitants.

His Excellency Walter Rupesinghe

High Commissioner for Sri Lanka

Ottawa , Canada .

Returning after forty-four years to the country of his boyhood memories, Christopher Ondaatje weaves this beautifully written story with nostalgia and affection around his favourite theme – the leopard. Equally at ease in the jungle dunes of Yala, a bench in a wayside village boutique, or an ebony drawing-room, he has done his country proud as a successful financier and writer.

Nihal Fernando

Studio Times, Sri Lank