A KL guide

The Kuala Lumpur Complete Residents' Guide (RM 75.50)

The foreword to The Kuala Lumpur Complete Residents' Guide says:
Whether you are only just starting to think about moving to Kuala Lumpur, or reading this on the plane, or you're an old-time expat who's lived there for years, well done for picking up the right book. It's not really meant for tourists who are looking for the best Twin Tower photo op -- it's written for you, the intrepid resident who knows the value of year-round sunshine.

The Kuala Lumpur Complete Residents' Guide has been meticulously researched and written by a team of seven city experts – some locals, some expats – who not only know the city inside out, but love it too... This talented bunch have scoured all areas to bring you the lowdown on all the things that are most important to a resident of Kuala Lumpur...

Although the book is aimed at expatriate residents, having glanced through the volume, we find that there are lots of information in there (not in the eleast of it, telephone numbers) suitable for locals as well. Let's face it, there are many parts of KL even people who have lived here for 50 years don't know about.

Debut fiction

Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan (Estimated Retail Price: RM 59.90) (The price is an estimate only based on books of similar nature. At the time of writing the distributor has not brought the books in yet.)

Set in Malaysia, this spellbinding and already internationally acclaimed debut introduces us to the prosperous Rajasekharan family as its closely guarded secrets are slowly peeled away.

When Chellam, the family's rubber-plantation-bred servant girl, is dismissed for unnamed crimes, her banishment is the latest of a series of recent, precipitous losses that have shaken six-year-old Aasha's life. A few short weeks before, Aasha's grandmother Paati passed away under mysterious circumstances and her older sister, Uma, departed for the Columbia University -- leaving Aasha alone to cope with her mostly absent father, her bitter mother, and her impertubable older brother.

Beginning with Aasha's granfather's ascension from Indian coolie to illustrious resident of the Big House on Kingfisher Lane, and going on to tell the story of how Appa, the family's Oxford-educated patriarch, courted Amma, the humble girl next door, Evening is the Whole Day moves gracefully backward and forward in time to answer the many questions that haunt the family: What was Chellam's unforgivable crime? Why was Uma so intent on leaving? How and why did Paati die? What did Aasha see? And underscoring all these mysteries: What ultimately became of Appa's once grand dreams for his family and his country?

Sweeping in scope, sumptuously lyrical, and masterfully constructed, Evening is the Whole Day offers an unflinching look at relationships between parents and children, brothers and sisters, the wealthy and the poor, a country and its citizens -- and the ways in which each sometimes fails the other. Illuminating in heartbreaking detail one Indian immigrant family's secrets and lies while exposing the complex underbelly of Malaysia itself, Preeta Samarasan's debut is a mesmerizing and vital achievement sure to earn her place alongside Arundhati Roy, Kiran Desai and Zadie Smith.

Aweks KL

Aweks Kl by various writers (Stormkitchen, RM 15.00)

A collection of new writing in Malay, done mostly by Malay women in Malaysia (because we simply didn't get enough submissions to make it an all-female book). The short stories and poems permit us the slightest of peeks into the mind of the modern Malay woman which, like the forbidden glimpse of a thigh, has been hitherto consigned to the backrooms of society as it is with children, to be only seen and not heard.

Included as a bonus are three previously unpublished stories by literary superstar Dina Zaman. Also featuring the talented Tifani Teh in her literay debut, the heavenly working class prose of Bimme S, the earthy music of Australia's Marlyn King, and the sad, bad, and dangerous lament of the Iranian, Fatemeh Zargar.

The books is available at Silverfish Books. Now!

Iban textiles

Iban Ritual Textile by Traude Gavin (RM 75.00)

Iban ritual textile draws on years of fieldwork and the author's documentation of the hundrds of Iban cloths. Topics include the ritual functions of Iban ikat-patterned fabric; the technical aspects of producing such cloths, as well as the dynamics of the complex of weaving (the power and efficacy of cloth patterns, dreams and charms) that can be subject to human interpretation and regulation. The main focus however is on the cloth patterns themselves and on the names assigned to them. Here the author challenges some long held misconceptions, in particular the notion of designs as a 'primitive form of language'. From this novel perspective, the role of weavers as technicians is set off against the power of patterns as an index for a weaver's relative rank. The study moves on to examine the
association of female prestige and weaving with the parallel structure of male status and headhunting. Findings further are discussed in the context of former and more recent intellectual frameworks.

Iban ritual textile is the first in-depth study of the ikat-patterned cloth based on extensive field research and should be of interest to anthropologists, art historians and scholars with an interest in the textile tradition of Southeast Asia.

Dr Traude Gavin is a freelance researcher and lecturer and lives in Great Britain.

History

Prince of Pirates by Carl A Trocki (RM 46.00)

No country's history is so well documented yet so poorly understood as that of a former colony. Singapore and Malaysia are particular victims of this historical paradox, and Carl Trocki's account of the history of Johor and Singapore marks a decided advance in Malaysian scholarship. A study of the Temenggongs of Johor, Prince of Pirates offers an original and highly provocative reinterpretation of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Malaysian history, revealing continuities between the pre-colonial and colonial periods that have been obscured by attention given to the European intrusion.

This new edition includes a fresh introduction by the author that positions the study within subsequent literature on Malaysian history, the Chinese migration, the opium trade and history of the British Empire in Asia. It also explains the role the book played in pioneering a number of important initiatives in Malaysian studies.