Saradha Published in UK

Hard work pays off for yet another Malaysian author. Just heard the great news from Eric Forbes that Saradha Narayanan, one third of the trio who wrote the collection of stories called Snapshots now has a novel out in the UK.

The Freedom of Choice is published by Melrose Books and came out on March 1st. It is described as :

A fantastically emotional tale of interwoven troubled lives that addresses the social issues of adoption and organ transplant.

And here's the synopsis :

On a wet, gloomy Monday morning in March 2004, Rachel Thomas receives a letter from a private investigator that throws her comfortable, middle-class lifestyle into chaos. She is confronted with a deeply guarded secret from her past. Traumatic events that she has kept buried for fourteen years come back to haunt her and she must now find the courage to make a choice that may disrupt and destroy her marriage. Will she make the right choice?

Set against the backdrop of modern day Kuala Lumpur, the novel moves seamlessly between the past and the present.

The story is told in parallel through the eyes of Rachel Thomas, the young mother, and Rohan Mahendran, the private investigator assigned to find her. It describes how the different races interact with one another and underscores how racial and religious differences influence the choices people make in life.

Our biggest congrats, Saradha!

While we're in celebratory mode, let's also pat young writer Mag Tan (aka Maggie Tan) on the back. Her short story The Gardener appears in the current edition of the Asian literary journal Cha.

Postscript:

A friend pointed out that Melrose books does what's called "commissioned publishing" in which the author bears the cost of having their book published after it has been accepted, while the publisher bears overheads. (So not print-on- demand or "vanity" publishing as the manuscript must pass editorial controls.) This is a very interesting path for Malaysian authors to take, and I'm sure all of us will want to know about Saradha's experiences. I have also invited her to read at Seksan's on April 19th.

Maggie Wins Txtlit

Bernice sent me an e-mail telling me that one of her ex-creative writing students from CENFAD, Mag Tan Yee Mei (who, as Maggie Tan, wrote a story Theatre des Marionettes which appeared in Silverfish New Writing 5) has won a UK writing competition for a romantic micro story submitted by SMS.

Biggest congrats from me too.

Maggie is now studying Art History and English Literature at the University of East Anglia. She apparently enjoys writing fairy tales in her spare time, and I bet you any money that she will turn out to be one of Raman's Silverfish "lappers". You might remember Maggie's appearance at reading at Seksan's some time back. She was so shy that Bernice had to read her story for her!