Acqua Sporca

Weaving together the tumultuous history of Sri Lanka with the backdrop of the Italian suburbs, the novel follows four women as they navigate winding paths paved with resentment, anger, and bitterness—trying to move forward by going back home.

«I read Dirty Water with great admiration and enthusiasm. Nadeesha Uyangoda brushes the dust off themes that are increasingly present in Italian literature—estrangement, real or imagined families, and issues of class—offering a literary experience that is precise, fresh, fully contemporary, and confident in its voice».
Claudia Durastanti, author of Missitalia

«Dirty Water is a sweeping Italian family fresco set between Italy and Sri Lanka, written in richly literary prose and distinguished by a sharp sociological gaze—compassionate, yet unsparing. From the specificity of a migration story, Uyangoda draws out a broader, more complex portrait of today’s world, illuminating its most urgent civil, political, and identity questions».
Vincenzo Latronico, author of Perfection

«The literary references (among others, Zadie Smith and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for the theme of integration, and Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux for the betrayal of one’s origins) flow into an original voice, marked by an unflinching gaze tempered by restrained compassion, and by a clear, at times surgical prose that takes on a poetic quality when recounting Sri Lankan customs and traditions.».

La Lettura – Corriere della Sera

YOU CAN KNOW A PERSON’S SPIRIT INTIMATELY, THEIR SKIN CAN FEEL AS FAMILIAR AS YOUR OWN FLESH—AND YET, ONE DAY, SUDDENLY, THEY WITHDRAW FROM YOU LIKE THE TIDE, HURRYING BACK INTO THE OCEAN.

– Dirty Water

THOSE TWO HAD SWAPPED SARONGS FOR JEANS AND BUDDHISM FOR THE COMMUNIST PARTY.

– Dirty Water

POVERTY LATCHES ONTO YOUR ANKLES, STRANGLES YOUR MIND AND, CRUELEST OF ALL, GROWS IN THE WOMB SO IT CAN PERPETUATE ITSELF FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION—IT’S AN INVASIVE WEED THAT WON’T BE UPROOTED.

– Dirty Water