By The Book

Writing a book about one's life can be a finely calibrated balancing act - revealing emotional truths and vulnerability, while telling an interesting, well-written story, all without giving too much of yourself up. In this episode, we explore some of our favourite memoirs and discuss what sets them apart. And then in Footnotes, we talk about a podcast that looks at the life and views of a previous...

Book translators often have their work cut out for them - not only do they have to be writers themselves, they also serve as the interpreters of another writer’s ideas, and a valuable bridge for readers to access literature from other languages. We speak with translator Fahmi Mustaffa about the pains and pleasures of his work, and how translating is about much more than simply substituting one lan...

Audiobooks have increasingly come into their own, in some cases as popular with readers as “reading”. We speak with the homegrown Nusantara Audiobooks about how they create books to be listened to, and how they’re trying to both promote and preserve local literature.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese was released to a lot of acclaim, including being a finalist for the 2006 National Book Awards. It weaves three separate stories together: that of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, a coming-of-age tale of a first generation American, Jin Wang, and lastly that of Danny, who's tormented by his deeply stereotypical visiting cousin from China, Chin Kee. Since it'...

Written before the attempt on Salman Rushdie's life earlier this year, but released after, Victory City is an oddly prescient book that's also one of the most interesting of Rushdie's long career. Framed as a fictional translation of the epic history of the Bisnagan empire, it is also ostensibly the biography of the empire's queen, Pampa Kampana, who - casually - has the powers of Parvati, the god...

Saras Manickam’s debut book is a collection written over nearly two decades, and features her 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize-winning entry as the titular story. In the anthology, flawed but authentic characters span the decades in a Malaysian setting, as Saras explores both intimate, personal struggles as well as broader societal themes. We speak with Saras about her writing process, and how...

Many fantasy and science-fiction novels begin with maps of the lands in which they're set. And this does a few things: it gives the reader a sense of scope, it welcomes us into the landscape of the story, and frankly, they're often very beautiful to look at. But what about the work that goes into these maps? What's the process? We speak to illustrator (and avid mapmaker), Charis Loke, about these...

One of the biggest catalysts in any story, and yet also one of the most underrated characters, mothers have always had a strong presence in literature and non-fiction. In this episode ahead of Mother's Day, we discuss some of our favourite mothers in books, including classics, literary fiction, and memoirs. We also touch on why mothers can be complicated to write about, as well as the trope of the...

Stories that span more than one book - whether a duology, a trilogy or a series - can either be exciting or daunting, depending on the kind of reader you are. We discuss our evolving relationships with this type of storytelling, and talk about whether we're completists or comfortable abandoning a book mid-series. Then, in Footnotes, we talk about sustainability in the book publishing industry.&nbs...

Franz Kafka's The Trial, written between 1914 and 1915, and published posthumously in 1925, tells the story of a man arrested for an unnamed crime and then forced to navigate an impossible legal and bureaucratic system to prove his innocence. Celebrated as an incisive allegory of how an oppressive, authoritarian regime might wear down its citizens, The Trial is often hailed as prescient and ahead...

Having started selling books on Facebook in 2016, Rachel Ang expanded Books n Bobs to a full-blown website and even a physical store. We talk to her about how it all came to be, and how to sell secondhand books online in a way that readers want and appreciate. And then, on Footnotes, we discuss the closure of a major bookseller, Book Depository, and how it marks the end of an era.  Image Cred...

Malaysian writer Nadia Mikail recently hit the headlines when she was announced the winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize as well as the older readers’ category, for her debut book, The Cats We Meet Along The Way - a tale of a Malaysian family that goes on a road trip as the wait for the world to end. We speak with Nadia about her inspirations for the book, and how she infuses warmth and...

Korean author Bora Chung’s collection of short stories has been garnering praise for its critique of patriarchy and capitalism, while also blurring the lines between magical realism, horror, and science fiction. We review the book and talk about whether it effectively uses the short story form.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Once you start looking, they're everywhere - website after website, publication after publication, it feels like everyone's got a definitive list of books that you simply have to read before you shuffle off this mortal coil. But what's the value of these lists anyway? Are they just book snobbery? We get into it on the show, and also mention some titles we're glad to have read while we had the oppo...

Brickfields We See You is a new zine that explores Brickfields through writing, illustrations and photos - and in this episode, we speak with one of its creators, Adriana Noordin Manan, about why she wanted to put this together, and what the whole process was like. And in a broader sense, we also wanted to explore the world of zines and the space they occupy, which is why we were also joined by Sh...

In line with the theme for 2023's International Women's Day - #EmbraceEquity - we look at book publishing, and what needs to happen to reach gender equity within the field on all levels. We speak with Flavia Alves Bravin, board member of PublisHer, a community of female publishing leaders who seek to address the inequalities in the field. We close off the conversation with recommendations of...

Spare, the much-anticipated autobiography by Prince Harry (ghost-written by J.R. Moehringer), arrived with a flurry of press coverage, all breathlessly focused on snippets of the book, including a physical confrontation with his brother, and anecdotes about his nether regions. But the book itself is actually a more thoughtful read, with meditations on a privileged, but deeply public and restricted...

In his second collection of short stories set in Malaysia, Marc de Faoite tells intimate, empathetic stories about people and communities who often go unheard. We speak to him about how his 15 years living in Malaysia inspired so much of his writing, and why he was drawn to telling stories that while empathetic, can also be difficult to take in.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...

Historical figures have always offered many storytelling avenues, allowing writers to explore not only major events, settings and societies in the past, but also to explore human emotions and fallacies - ultimately, bringing us closer to people from history, who can otherwise feel remote or unrelatable. In this episode, we discuss some of our favourite books about people from history, and also som...

Inspired by Daryl Kho's personal experience with his father's dementia, Mist-Bound: How to Glue Back Grandpa is a middle-grade fantasy about a little girl, Alexis, who sets off on a magical quest into a secret land to save her grandfather's shattered memories. We speak to Daryl about the fantasy world he's created, and how he channeled his family's experiences into his writing. See omnystudio.com/...

The winner of the 2022 Booker Prize, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka, tells the story of the titular character, a 'war photographer, gambler, and closet queen'. Or more specifically, the story of Maali Almeida after his sudden death in Colombo in 1990, when he has seven moons to both investigate what happened to him, while also making some big decisions about his fate in th...

This week, we dive into Malaysian literature in Chinese, or Mahua literature, by talking about how it originated, the way it's evolved, and its complex place within both Malaysian and global literatures. We close off the conversation with a series of recommendations from our guest, Dr Florence Kuek of the Chinese Studies Department at Universiti Malaya.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privac...

To kick off the New Year, we revisit our favourite reads of 2022, which ran the gamut from dystopia, fantasy, and mythology to historical fiction and social commentary. To close off, in Footnotes, we make reading resolutions for the upcoming year.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Preeta Samarasan's second novel is set in Malaysia post May 13, 1969, where a group of people settle down in a secluded mansion in Cameron Highlands, eschewing labels of race and religion, and hoping to remain apart from the country's changing political climate with its increasing religious polarisation. Things take a turn, however, when they are joined by Salmah, a Malay Muslim woman. We speak wi...

Increasingly, newsletters have become a way for writers to publish their thoughts and writings, and send it directly into readers' inboxes. We speak to Darshini Kandasamy, CEO of Between the Lines, which describes itself as 'a daily email that summarises the main Malaysian news you need to know, with context, bite and wit.' We discuss the pleasures and challenges that come with running a newslette...