Asylum

"Allah shouldn't have revealed so much to the Prophet. It only makes pious people like us suffer"So muses Khalid Khan, a seventeen year old Afghan boy living in Melbourne. Khalid is like any other boyof his age in Australia; he loves his footy, his mum's cooking and takes every opportunity to tease his sisterAisha. He believes in Allah although he sometimes wonders whether it is such a good idea to converteverybody in the world to Islam.The quiet suburban life of Khalid's family is turned upside down one Friday morning when theyhave an unwelcome visitor. What follows is a hilarious - and poignant -intercultural encounterin multicultural Australia. I was born in Sri Lanka and have been living in Australia since 1990. I have written five novels: 'Walls', 'Distant Warriors', 'In the Same Boat' and 'Asylum' and 'Tracks'. My fiction often deals with the experience of migrants. I am also a military historian, having obtained my PhD. in History from Monash University, Melbourne in 1998. I have written four monographs on South Asian military history, 'Best Black Troops in the World', 'Kandy at War', 'The Tamil Separatist War in Sri Lanka' and 'ATough Appreniceship: Sri Lanka's Military Aganst the Tamil Militants 1979 - 1987.'