Welcome to Litsy!

Inspired by Sri Lankan folklore, award-winning author Amanda Jayatissa turns her feverish, Gothic-tinged talents to late 19th century Sri Lanka where the daughter of a traditional demon-priest�relentlessly bullied by peers and accused of witchcraft herself�tries to solve the mysterious attacks that have been terrorizing her coastal village. Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father�s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise. Now someone�or something�is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara�s father�s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself. As she tries to clear her father�s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can�t shake the feeling that it�s all connected to the night she was recovering from a strange illness, and woke up, scared and confused, to hear her mother�s frantic cries: No one can find out what happened. Lush, otherworldly, and recalling horror classics like Carrie and The Exorcist, Island Witch is a deliciously creepy and darkly feminist tale about the horrors of moral panic, the violent space between girlhood and adulthood, and what happens when female rage is finally unleashed.