Nationality Sri Lankan Role Novelist Name K. Jayatillake | Spouse(s) Sumana Jayatillake Religion Buddhist | |
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Born 27 June 1926 ( 1926-06-27 ) Kannimahara, Gampaha, Sri Lanka Died September 14, 2011, Colombo, Sri Lanka Books Punciralage maranaya, Kale ayan to | ||
Kaluachchigamage Jayatillake (Sinhala:කේ.ජයතිලක) (27 June 1926 – 14 September 2011), known as K.Jayatillake, is a Sinhala novelist and literary critic. He was born in Kannimahara, Gampaha District, Sri Lanka and was a contemporary of Mahagama Sekara having studied in the same school. He married Sumana Jayatillake and is the father of four children.
K Jayatilake is one of Sri Lanka's topmost creative writers of the modern period of Sinhala literature. Using his close observations of village life, Jayatilake was a pioneer in the Sinhalese realistic novel. His first creative work, Punaruppattiya, a collection of short stories published in 1955, was well received. His award-winning novel and acknowledged masterpiece, Charitha Thunak, published in 1963, begins with a scene of peasants working in the field, evoking the intimate relationship between the villager and the earth. In this and other novels, Jayatilake reminds us also of the close-knit society of the village that is guided by common values.
He died on September 14, 2011, at a private hospital in Colombo.