…says Tim Hannigan of River of Ink by Paul Cooper in The Asian Review of Books: “Words, similes and metaphors, and ink itself, smelling ‘like rain, ……falling for the first time on dusty stone’, make for a major theme of the book, and Cooper’s prose is suitably lush. The nervous, mumbling Asanka has to ‘gather together my words like dropped apples’; a soldier’s arm unwinds ‘like a snake’; and there are any number of striking images, not least that of peacocks wandering ‘brazen and oblivious’ amongst bound prisoners in a palace garden.

Tension mounts marvellously throughout the book as Asanka is faced with the successive deadlines for the instalments of his translation—a tension heightened by ambiguity…

River of Ink is obviously the product of a formidable amount of research. Cooper—who worked as an English teacher in Sri Lanka—has evidently immersed himself in the details of life in 13th-century Polonnaruwa, in the text of the Shishupala Vadha, and in the technicalities of medieval South Asian poetry.

Indeed, there’s something curiously heartening about seeing a talented young European author descending on an Asian subject apparently completely unperturbed by potential accusations of orientalist misappropriation—accusations which would, in any case, be churlish, given his obvious and unashamed enthusiasm for the task.

And yet one of the book’s curious strengths is actually its avoidance of hard history. Dates are never mentioned, and there are none of the clunky, era-establishing ‘period touches’ that often mar historical fiction. For all that the atmosphere of Pollonaruwa is lavishly evoked, the events could ultimately be unfolding in any age, or any place: a universal story.

River of Ink is a striking first novel, from an author with a rare skill for deploying heavy research with a light touch, for revelling in the seductive possibilities of style without losing sight of narrative drive, and for making profound points while also delivering first-rate entertainment.

Paul MM Cooper’s own pen is certainly a formidable weapon, and it will be exciting to see him wield it again in years to come.”

Read the full review here

Buy River of Ink here