Tattooed Sherlock

A drug-smuggling cat, an apocalyptic ice storm, a gargantuan Barbie doll in the sky, policemen wielding syringes, and other fabular images frame these stories of lovers in Edenic settings, scholars at loggerheads, dubious soulmates, ominous perils, young families, and old friends. In her astonishing debut collection, Kanchuka Dharmasiri conjures worlds both intimately familiar and eloquently strange.

Set in the time of the global pandemic, these stories capture often-overlooked realities exposed when life is knocked off-kilter by crisis.

From Kandy to Colombo, from California to New England, many of the stories in Tattooed Sherlock feature women—academics, journalists, lovers, mothers—whose perspectives cast a sardonic light on the men who attempt to seduce or hold authority over them, and through whose eyes we discover the enchantments of the world.

In narratives as oneiric as Haruki Murakami, absurdist as Eugène Ionesco, and darkly funny as Franz Kafka, Dharmasiri brings her own supple intellect, mordant wit, and tender insight to these tales of everyday lives in extraordinary times.