K. Jayatillake

Who was K. Jayatillake?

Kaluachchigamage Jayatillake, known as K.Jayatillake, is a Sinhala novelist and literary critic. He was born in Kannimahara, Gampha 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.