Malaysia

A stack of books by Malaysian authors

I read some really wonderful books from Malaysia, my favorites being Evening is the Whole Day and The Rice Mother, both devastatingly depressing family dramas set in Malaysian South Asian communities (I guess that’s my jam?). I also greatly enjoyed The Ghost Bride and The Terracotta Bride, which are set largely or entirely in the Chinese afterlife (I liked The Ghost Bride enough that I went on to read Yangzse Choo’s second novel, The Night Tiger, which is set in 1930s Malaya and is about a were-tiger, and I recently received her third novel, The Fox Wife, for Christmas).

I also gave The Harmony Silk Factory four stars, so I must have enjoyed reading it, but I don’t remember anything about it now. Even reading the synopsis doesn’t ring any bells, so I’m not going to write about it. I liked all the other books (I thought Yesterday was pretty ridiculous, but enjoyable all the same), except I Am Muslim, but I think I was not the intended audience for that one. There was one book I didn’t finish–The Morning Post by A. Samad Said. It might have been good but the translation was just unreadable, full of nonsensical sentences and odd grammatical choices, and I just couldn’t stick it out.

  1. Evening Is the Whole Day, Preeta Samarasan, 2008 (4.5 stars)
  2. The Rice Mother, Rani Manicka, 2002 (4 stars)
  3. The Harmony Silk Factory, Tash Aw, 2005 (4 stars)
  4. The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo, 2013 (4 stars)
  5. The Terracotta Bride, Zen Cho, 2016 (4 stars)
  6. The Gift of Rain, Twan Eng Tan, 2007 (4 stars)
  7. Among the White Moon Faces, Shirley Geok-lin Lim, 1996 (3.5 stars)
  8. Rope of Ash, Shahnon Ahmad, 1979 (3.5 stars)
  9. Yesterday, Felicia Yap, 2017 (3.5 stars)
  10. A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder, Shamini Flint, 2009 (3 stars)
  11. The Last Days of a Storyteller, Anwar Ridhwan, 1979 (3 stars)
  12. Sejarah Melayu (Malay Annals), Tun Seri Lanang, 1612 (3 stars)
  13. I Am Muslim, Dina Zaman, 2007 (2.5 stars)

Not read

  • The Morning Post, A. Samad Said, 1990 (started it but found the translation unreadable)
  • Interlock, Abdullah Hussain, 1971 (could not find)
  • Selected Plays by Usman Awang, Usman Awang, 1995 or Scattered Bones, 2009 (could not find)
  • Sandera, Arena Wati, 1971 (not translated into English)
  • Huzir Sulaiman: Collected Plays, Huzir Sulaiman, 2013 (could not find)
The Morning Post