From the shadows: A Stranger to Love by KS Maniam


I discuss the literary legacy of venerable Malaysian writer KS Maniam and review his latest collection of stories 'A Stranger to Love' in the latest print edition of Mekong Review (May-July 2018).

Mekong Review is available by subscription and at selected bookstores.

Comments

Post a Comment

Feel free to comment or provide proof-reading feedback.

Thanks

Marc

Popular posts from this blog

Lost Kingdom - A road trip through rural Kedah

Image
The landscape of coastal Kedah is unerringly flat; a fluid place existing at the juncture of land and sky and sea, a place where the earth is more liquid than soil and stretches out in every direction until it is lost in the not-so-distant horizon’s humid haze. This is one of Malaysia’s main rice growing regions, where the high water table spirit-levels the landscape flat. Alor Star, the principal town of Kedah, is easily passed through. Like every other town in Kedah it is a sleepy uneventful place.  The K1 cuts a narrow two-laned straight line south across the sunlit landscape like an exercise in perspective, the vanishing point blurred by the hot and shimmering air. Traffic was light. My car moved over the tabletop flatness of this water-world where cauliflower cumulous clouds are reflected in the perfect mirrors of canals and flooded fields. The dark mud of newly ploughed padi fields shone and sparkled wetly under the sun. Other fields were filled with the vibran...
Read more

A travers les villages abandonnés d'Aragon.

Image
Read this in English Cette conte est parue en deux parties dans la Revue Pyrénéenne d'octobre et decembre 2013 Cela faisait près de deux mois que je travaillais au refuge des Sarradets sans un seul jour de congé. Je ne me plaignais pas - C’était mon choix personnel et j’étais content de pouvoir travailler, mais prévoyant une pause nécessaire en milieu de saison, j'avais réservé un billet d'avion pour partir à Amsterdam. La date de départ approchant, loin d’avoir hâte de retrouver des amis aux Pays Bas je sentais de moins en moins l’envie de retourner à la "civilisation." Je ne voulais pas voir des voitures, ni passer mon temps dans des bars. Je voulais rester dans les Pyrénées. C'est donc ce que j'ai fait et l'avion est parti sans moi. J'ai rempli mon sac à dos avec tout le nécessaire pour une randonnée à travers les montagnes et je me suis dirigé vers la Brèche de Roland. J’étais rodé à cette courte montée d'environ deux cent ...
Read more

I wrote about Returning to France after 15 years for The Irish Times

Image
I moved to France in 1995 after 5 years in Brussels. I left for Malaysia in 2007, but a certain virus and an editing job I did on a certain politically charged book made a future there untenable. So I moved back to France and found a place quite different to the one I had left. I wrote a short piece for The Irish Times about some of the changes I have noticed since I moved back, but unfortunately it is paywalled.
Read more