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The Gift of Rain

The Gift of Rain
  • Author(s): Tan Twan Eng
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya), Penang
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Before WW2 onwards

This is the story of Philip Hutton, as he grapples with his guilt and pain and the choices he had to make when the Japanese attacks Malaya and his home of Penang

The Glass Palace

The Glass Palace
  • Author(s): Amitav Ghosh
  • Location(s): Burma (Myanmar), India, Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Second half 19th century onwards

Beginning in 1885, with the British invasion of Mandalay and the capture of the Burmese king and queen, and encompassing over 100 years to modern-day India and Burma (Myanmar), Amitav Ghosh has created in The Glass Palace a monument...

The Harmony Silk Factory

The Harmony Silk Factory
  • Author(s): Tash Aw
  • Location(s): Malaysia (Malaya)
  • Era(s): 1930s/1940s

Set in Malaysia in the 1930s and 40s, with the rumbling of the Second World War in the background and the Japanese about to invade, The Harmony Silk Factory is the story of four people: Johnny, an infamous Chinaman...

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 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...

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...

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...

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.

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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