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The Orientalist and The Ghost

The Orientalist and The Ghost
  • Author(s): Susan Barker
  • Location(s): Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1950s to modern

Malaya 1951, Christopher Milnar falls passionately in love with Chinese nurse Evangeline in a jungle resettlement camp – an affair that ends in tragedy when, under attack from Communist guerrillas, Christopher is betrayed, beaten and left for dead. Half...

The Parasol Flower

The Parasol Flower
  • Author(s): Karen Quevillon
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya), Hampshire
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1896 and contemporary

Nancy Roach has fled her dissertation advisor for Paris, where her PhD research is proving fruitless. When her curiosity is piqued by an illustration of “The Parasol Flower” in a 19th century treatise, she is drawn into the life...

The Storm We Made

The Storm We Made
  • Author(s): Vanessa Chan
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 1940s

Japanese-occupied Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s children are in terrible danger. Her eldest child Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day. Jasmin, the youngest, lives confined in a basement for...

When the Future Comes Too Soon

When the Future Comes Too Soon
  • Author(s): Selina Siak Chin Yoke
  • Location(s): Ipoh
  • Genre(s): Historical, Fiction
  • Era(s): WW2

Following the death of their matriarch, the lives of Chye Hoon’s family are turned upside down. Now that the British have fled and the Japanese have conquered, their once-benign world changes overnight. Amid the turmoil, Chye Hoon’s daughter-in-law, Mei...

The Garden of Evening Mists

The Garden of Evening Mists
  • Author(s): Tan Twan Eng
  • Location(s): Cameron Highlands
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Late 1940s,

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012. It’s Malaya, 1949. After studying law at Cambrige and time spent helping to prosecute Japanese war criminals, Yun Ling Teoh, herself the scarred lone survivor of a brutal Japanese wartime camp, seeks...

The Ghost Bride

The Ghost Bride
  • Author(s): Yangsze Choo
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): 1890s

Seventeen-year-old Li Lan lives in 1890s Malaya with her quietly-ruined father, who returns one evening with a proposition – the fabulously wealthy Lim family want Li Lan to marry their son. The only problem is, he’s dead. After a...

A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder

A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder
  • Author(s): Shamini Flint
  • Location(s): Kuala Lumpur
  • Genre(s): Crime
  • Era(s): Modern

First in the series – Detective Singh is sent to Kuala Lumpur to ensure that a Singaporean citizen accused of murdering her very wealthy Malaysian Chinese husband, gets fairly retreated by the Malaysian justice system.

The White Pearl

The White Pearl
  • Author(s): Kate Furnivall
  • Location(s): Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): WW2

Malaya, 1941. As the glamorous wife of a plantation owner, Connie Hadley appears to lead a pampered and comfortable life. But she is hiding devastating secrets that could destroy her marriage. Life is changed for ever on the day...

Shouting From The Summits

Shouting From The Summits
  • Author(s): Kala Ramachandran
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs
  • Era(s): 1980s to present

‘Living proof that a stammer need not hold you back’. Leys Geddes Kala Ramachandran struggled with a stammer and it became so debilitating, she thought it would be with her her whole life. But then she embraced mountaineering. And...

A Malayan Affair

A Malayan Affair
  • Author(s): Rob Holley
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Romance
  • Era(s): 1930s

The affair of the planter’s wife running off with her driver had been a burning topic in the British High Commission and clubs, and had even occupied several discreet paragraphs in the Straits Times … It is 1930s Malaya...

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