Home Features The First Page—Roma Wells

The First Page—Roma Wells

Watch and listen to Roma Wells read from the first page of her debut novel, Seek the Singing Fish (époque press).



Seek the Singing Fish, by Roma Wells

Growing up in the lagoon town of Batticaloa, a young girl, with an unquenchable curiosity and love of the natural world, is entangled in the trauma and turmoil of the Sri Lankan civil war. Uprooted from everything she holds dear, tragedy and betrayal set in motion an unforgettable odyssey. Torn from east to west, struggling with what it means to belong, she desperately seeks a way home to the land of the singing fish.


‘A striking debut novel that charts a childhood ravaged by war and redeemed by the chimerical magic of the natural world. Written in a scintillating, hallucinatory register, this book is studded with fascinating insights into the animal kingdom that give a fresh moral perspective to exceptional violence.’

Minoli Salgado


Previously on The First Page, Adrian Duncan and Kelly Creighton