Shiromi Pinto's book Plastic Emotions is inspired by the life of Minnette de Silva – a forgotten feminist icon and one of the most important figures of twentieth century architecture.
In a gripping and lyrical story, Pinto paints a complex picture of de Silva, charting her affair with infamous Swiss modernist Le Corbusier and her efforts to build an independent Sri Lanka that slowly heads towards political and social turmoil. Moving between London, Chandigarh, Colombo, Paris, and Kandy, Plastic Emotions explores the life of a young, trailblazing South Asian woman at a time of great turbulence across the globe.
Plastic Emotions by Shiromi Pinto is our shop's choice for July's book of the month. It is available to buy in our shop.
Plastic Emotions by Shiromi Pinto
Biographies
Shiromi Pinto's debut, Trussed, was published by Serpent’s Tail in 2006. She has written short stories for BBC Radio 4, the Victoria & Albert Museum and opendemocracy.net. Born in London and raised in Montreal, she works full-time at Amnesty International in London.
Michelle Houlston is a writer and co-founder of Liverpool based arts project, Grrrl Power Liverpool (GPL). Her work includes editing a series of essays, Lonely Girl Phenomenology, on the topic of love and feminism. Michelle, as part of GPL, has also led and facilitated discussions and workshops on moving towards a fairer creative and political world. Michelle’s focus is intersectional feminism, and she has written articles for publications including XXY Magazine and gal-dem.