By The Book

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 writings by women to check out. 

Image Credit: Facebook/PublisHerEvents

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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 existence, glimpses of what it means to be born into royalty as a 'spare', and grief. We're joined by Ee-Lyn Tan, co-founder of The Brownies Bar and self-described royal family enthusiast, to discuss the book. And then in Footnotes, we discuss the current move to rewrite Roald Dahl's works to remove language deemed inappropriate, which critics have seen as an attack on free speech and art. 

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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.   

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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 some of the problems of fictionalising troubled, or dark figures like serial killers.

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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.

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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 the afterlife. Equal parts a murder mystery, a dark comedy, a metaphysical philosophical treatise, a historical novel - it's a deeply satisfying read, and one we explore with our guest Sharon Bakar. And then in Footnotes, Sharon gives us some other recommendations from the Booker 2022 Longlist. 

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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. 

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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.  

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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 with Preeta about the complexities of depicting these fraught realities, and how she captured a particularly Malaysian sound with her prose. We close off by reviewing Tale of the Dreamer's Son. 

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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 newsletter, and finding a readership. And then on Footnotes, we talk about the newsletters we're subscribed to. 

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