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Ratings: ★★★★☆(4/5)
Genre: Dystopian Fiction, Literary Fiction, Sri Lankan Fiction

Book Review :
First Utterance by Theena Kumaragurunathan is a powerful and poetic debut novel that marks a distinctive new voice in Sri Lankan English literature. Set in a haunting, unnamed dystopian world, the story follows three men who are deemed mad by society because they choose to reject its brutal realities. They shirk the oppressive noise for silence, reality for dreams, and sanity for a fragile peace. Their lives intertwine as they navigate a world on the brink, and their collective fate seems to have cosmic consequences, threatening to bring about the end of time itself. The prose is lyrical and intense, immediately drawing the reader into its unique atmosphere. The opening line, ''I wake up to a thousand ants walking across and over my belly, a colony marching in a single, perfectly straight line like a regiment marching into a town they had just captured,'' perfectly captures the book's surreal and compelling tone. It's a bold, ambitious, and thought-provoking work that lingers long after the final page.