Reef is Romesh Gunesekera's debut novel, published in 1994. It was nominated for the 1994 Man Booker Prize, and won the 1997 Premio Mondello Five Continents Asia Prize, the 1994 Yorkshire Post First Work Prize, the 1994 New Voice Award, and was also named an Economist Book of the Month.
Reef is written in the first-person perspective and tells the story of Triton, a Sri Lankan servant who scientifically develops his talent for cooking before moving to England to escape the Sri Lankan Civil War. Though Triton is both narrator and protagonist, he directs his gaze toward his employer, Mister Salgado, for much of the novel by intimately describing Mister Salgado's appearance, mannerisms, and feelings. Set against class tensions and civil unrest, this unusual perspective illustrates how classist institutions, like child labor, prevent underprivileged individuals like Trition from developing their identity outside of their servant role.
The text uses literary devices, like dramatic tension and understatement, to highlight how Triton's fixation on Mister Salgado and his domestic affairs blinds him to the political unrest around him. The text also uses rich, sensory imagery to simulate the wealth of wealthy Sri Lankans before the Civil War and demonstrate how Triton's sensitivity and powers of observation make him an exceptional chef. Triton's narration includes nuanced, philosophical reflections from his adult, established self. These reflections demonstrate that the only difference between Triton and his intellectual employer, Mister Salgado, is the class into which they were born.
