negative connotation, but doesn't understand its complexity, stating that "It was clear to me that I had done something wrong, but what it was I couldn't comprehend" (17). Throughout the novel, Arjie is also increasingly aware of his feelings towards the boys in his school, accepting that he thinks of the shorts they wear and longs to be with them (208). However, he only fully grasps his sexual identity and its familial implications after a sexual encounter with one of his male classmates. Arjie then understands his father's concern and "why there had been such worry in his voice whenever he talked about me. He had been right to try and protect me from what he feared was inside me, but he had failed" (256). Tamil diaspora and Sri Lankan Civil War The origin of many important themes in Funny Boy is the increasingly serious tensions between Tamils and Sinhalese while Arjie is growing up in Sri Lanka. This underlying conflict leads to many of the novel's elements of diaspora, identity, and ethnicity found in several sections of Funny Boy. The broader ethnic tensions in Sri Lanka are addressed and manifest themselves through various instances and interactions in Arjie's life. The relationship between Radha Aunty and Anil is one such example. In this chapter, Arjie begins to learn about the history of the ethnic conflict and begins to realize the magnitude of the impact it may have on his life. Additionally, in "The Best School of All" chapter, Arjie experiences this tension firsthand in many interactions at school. These themes continue throughout the novel, and their importance in Arjie's life continues to increase until his family is forced into diaspora due to the instability in Sri Lanka and the start of the Civil War, as chronicled by "Riot Journal: An Epilogue". Reception The book has found strong positive reception both in scholarly reviews and online reading communities. Edward Hower reviewing the book for The Times wrote “Throughout Funny Boy, Shyam Selvadurai writes as sensitively about the emotional intensity of adolescence as he does about the wonder of childhood. He also paints an affectionate picture of an imperfect family in a lost paradise, struggling to stay together in troubled times.” Richard Eder of Los Angeles Times wrote that “With odd quiet and intimacy, the Sri Lanka novelist Shyam Selvadurai depicts a family’s agony on the fault line of a country cracking