BY JULIE > 6 MAY 2019
SOURCE: THE BAMBOO TRAVELER
Malaya, with its mix of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, is full of spirits: a looking-glass world governed by unsettling rules. – The Night Tiger (2019) – By Yangsze Choo.
I visited Malaysia last year for 3 weeks and fell in love with the country and its friendly people, delicious food, and unforgettable shophouse architecture. Before, during, and after my travels there, I read over 10 books on Malaysia. Here is my growing list of books set in Malaysia.
If you’re planning on traveling to Penang, the best book to read is The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng. The book was long-listed for the Booker Prize in 2007. For travels to the Cameron Highlands, read Eng’s other book, The Garden of Evening Mists. Both of Eng’s books center on the Japanese occupation of Malaysia.
On a lighter note, the most recently published book (February 2019) on this list is The Night Tiger, a mystery-romance by Yangsze Choo, an enjoyable read about a Chinese Malay family set in Ipoh. Choo has another book that captures the decaying and eerie atmosphere of Melaka perfectly in The Ghost Bride. Finally, if you want to learn about Peranakan culture, I have added the latest book I’ve read The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds.
For those interested in non-fiction books on Malaysia, there’s one business book about the world’s biggest financial heist, Billion Dollar Whale, and an eye-opening book on Malaysian history, Crossroads, that is a must for anyone wanting to understand why Malaysia is the way it is today.
Almost all of the writers on this list are Chinese- Malaysians. I couldn’t find many good Malay or Indian-Malaysian writers that have been translated into English. If you know of any, let me know in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
My Favorite Books
If I had to choose three of my favorite books set in Malaysia, I’d choose these threeThe Night Tiger, The Garden of Evening Mists & Crossroads
If you have any books on Malaysia that you loved, please share in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
FICTION BOOKS ON MALAYSIA
1. The Garden of Evening Mists
By Tan Twan Eng (2012)
My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
If you’re heading to the Cameron Highlands or the city of Ipoh, you should definitely pick up the Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. The novel takes place in the 1950s during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), a guerilla war fought by the Malayan communist party against the British government and wealthy plantation owners.
An interesting fact: the Emergency was not officially called a war because if it had been, then insurance companies wouldn’t have reimbursed the plantation owners for the damages and property loss they suffered during those 12 years. Over 6,000 people died during the Malayan Emergency.
The book starts out in current times with the main character, Yun Ling, a judge of Chinese ethnicity, retiring and moving back to the Highlands from Kuala Lumpur.
Then the story jumps back in time to World War II when Yun Ling was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese and then to the 1950s when she moves to the Highlands and becomes an apprentice to a Japanese gardener.
Out of all this list of books on Malaysia, this one left me with the deepest impression. I couldn’t stop thinking about how much Yun Ling suffered at the hands of the Japanese, and then to have had such a close relationship with Atomi.
This list of books set in Malaysia includes two by Tan Twan Eng. Both are very well-written, so deciding which one to read depends on where you’re going.
If you’re heading to the Cameron Highlands, read The Garden of Evening Mists. If you’re going to Penang but not the Highlands, read Gift of Rain. If you’re going to both, I prefer The Garden of Evening Mist as I liked the main character better than the one in Gift of Rain.
I’d also suggest reading the book during your trip and not before. When you see the Highlands for yourself, the story makes more sense.
2. The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo (2013)
Written by Yangsze Choo, The Ghost Bride takes the reader to the city of Malacca of 1893.
It’s a story that is part adventure and part supernatural. Some will enjoy the story of ghosts and the afterlife; others won’t.
As for me, I surprisingly liked the book a lot even though I don’t usually like unrealistic stories about ghosts and spirits,
The main character is Pan Li Lan, the younger daughter of a bankrupt opium-addicted father. His lack of business skills and his desire to escape from the outside world lead to the financial decline of his family. As a result, Li Lan’s marriage prospects are not so fortunate.
A rich family proposes to her father that his only daughter become the ghost bride of their recently deceased son, Lim Tian Ching. This is a real but rare custom that took place in Chinese overseas communities in Southeast Asia.
After an ominous visit to the mansion of the Lim family, Li Lan is haunted night after night by the ghost of Lim Tian Ching. She eventually journeys into the afterlife—a parallel universe of puppet servants, funeral offerings, corrupt bureaucrats, ghost cities, and hungry ghosts.
What I loved about this book was how beautifully Choo describes Malacca and the overseas Chinese beliefs of the afterlife. I was in Malacca a few months ago. While reading about Li Lan’s adventures in the world of the dead, I found myself being transported back to Malacca and walking along the dark and lonely potholed streets of the Chinese quarter with its dilapidated and neglected shophouses.
Malacca is like a city that someone forgot about. In a way that is true. Once the British found that Penang and Singapore were more ideally situated for trade, many of the Straits Chinese left for these greener pastures. As a result, Malacca sort of faded away.
I highly recommend this book if you’re traveling to Malacca, if you’re just interested in learning more about the Chinese beliefs and customs or if you want a good book written by a very good writer. Read it before or during your trip. If you’re not going, I think it will at least inspire you to visit.
3. The Gift of Rain By Tan Twan Eng (2009)
The Gift of Rain is the perfect book to bring with you on your trip to Penang. Set in George Town, Penang before and during the Second World War, the novel tells the story of Phillip Hutton, the half-British and half-Chinese member of a wealthy and powerful British trading family, and his complicated relationship with his mysterious Japanese aikido teacher, Endo.
The story begins with the visit by a stranger to Phillip’s house in Penang. The visit triggers memories of the years before and during the war when the lonely and confused sixteen-year-old Phillip first meets Endo and becomes his devoted pupil. The two form an instant bond far deeper than Phillip had ever had with his family. His teacher gives Phillip what his aloof and rarely-present father could never give him: an identity, a philosophy, a strength, and self-confidence to believe in himself.
As war breaks out and Japan occupies Malaysia, Phillip must choose where his loyalties lie: with those who have never completely accepted him or with the man who has made him the better person he is.
Mr. Eng is a beautiful writer. Even if you are not traveling to Malaysia, it’s an interesting story that leaves a deep impression on you.
At the same, I was frustrated with Phillip. I hated how blind or willfully ignorant he was being when it was so obvious what Endo’s intentions were.
If you are planning on visiting Penang, read The Gift of Rain before your trip or better yet, take it with you as you wander the streets of Georgetown, walking down Campbell Street, and Armenian Street looking at the beautiful and crumbling shophouses.
4. Inspector Singh Investigates: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder By Shamini Flint (2010)
A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder stars Singaporean Inspector Singh as he travels to Kuala Lumpur to help in the investigation of the murder of Alan Lee, a wealthy Malaysian businessperson. A Singaporean citizen and the victim’s ex-wife, Chelsea Lew, is being charged with the murder. Because it’s such a high-profile case involving a famous Singaporean, Singh is sent to Malaysia by his government to ensure that the investigation is done fairly.
The Good:
After reading the first few chapters, I was excited by the prospects of the rest of the book and series.
The main character: Singh is my favorite kind of police detective—deeply flawed and reviled by those in power. The Sikh detective is a dysfunctional overweight chain-smoker with no sense of fashion (white shoes!). However, he’s got integrity and a strong sense of justice, and he’s also more observant and smarter than all of those around him.
What’s not to love?
The cultural angle: A Most Peculiar Malaysian Murder is filled with lots of interesting pieces of information on Malaysian culture, the Malaysian legal system (there are two legal systems: one for Muslims and one for non-Muslims!), the environmental problems in Sarawak, and the Singapore-Malaysia rivalry.
I found myself laughing out loud a few times at the Singaporean’s sarcastic and biting observations of Malaysia. Singapore and Malaysia are like two cousins who can’t stand each other but because they’re family and they live next door to each other, they have to try to get along.
The Bad:
About half-way through the book, the story falls apart and the writing breaks down. The story is unoriginal and boring. The detective-work is second-rate. There’s no explanation why Singh thinks Chelsea is innocent beyond the fact that she’s beautiful. The characters are one dimensional: either all good or all bad. The point of view bounces from one character to another so that we get inside the heads and motives of nearly everyone in the story. The dialog is cringe-inducing. I found myself skimming the last few chapters. Need I go on?
The Verdict:
Unfortunately, despite the book being culturally valuable for understanding Malaysia, the story is just awful, so I suggest save your money and skip it. If it’s available from the library, read the first half for the fascinating cultural information.
5. My Life as a Fake by Peter Carey (2009)
Written by Australian writer, Peter Carey, My Life as a Fake takes the reader on a journey to Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s and then travels back further in time to Penang and Australia of the 1950s. There are about three or four main characters. The reason I’m not sure about how many is that I’m not really sure if one character was a figment of another character’s imagination or was actually real.
There’s Sara, an editor at a poetry magazine, John Slater, a famous poet traveling with Sara, Christopher Chubb, an infamous poet and hoaxer from Australia, and Bob McCorkle, either an imaginary or real poet also from Australia.
Sara and John travel to Kuala Lumpur where they unexpectedly meet Chubb, who is in possession of some incredible poems of McCorkle’s that Sara falls in love with. In order to get the poems, she records Chubb’s insane story of the effects a hoax had on his life.
Most of the book centers on this wild and insane story of Chubb’s life. I was never sure what was real and what was fake. Hence, the title of the book: My Life as a Fake.
Carey is a good writer. And the story is clever and ingenious. However, I can’t say that I actually enjoyed reading it. I don’t like stories in which I don’t know what is real and what isn’t.
As far as being a good book to give you insights into Malaysia, skip it. There are much better books out there. The story focuses on the four white people, while the Malaysians are just part of the background. They’re not given a personality or a story.
This book could’ve been told in any Southeast Asian city and the story wouldn’t have changed.
Most importantly, I disliked the way Carey portrayed the Malaysians as exotic stereotypes and Malaysia as a hot (true), stinky, and dirty place.
Carey likes to throw in Malay words and street names here and there, and for some reason, Chubb speaks like a Malay adding in “lah” at the end of everything he says.
6. The Night Tiger By Yangsze Choo (2019)
The most recent book on this list of books set in Malaysia is The Night Tiger, published in February of this year.
It’s gotten rave critical reviews. It was listed on Amazon’s best new releases of February 2019, and as I write this, it’s on Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club reading list.
The Night Tiger takes the reader on a journey back in time to colonial Malaysia of the 1930s. It takes place in the province of Perak, the eastern part of Malaysia, between three tin-mining small cities: Ipoh, Taiping, and Batu Gajah. In the 1930s, the British made a fortune from mining tin in the region and the Chinese made money providing services for the tin mine owners and workers.
The Night Tiger is part romance and part mystery with a heavy dose of folklore involving tigers. It’s a bit complicated as there are a lot of different main characters who are all mysteriously connected to each other having to do with their names all being part of the five Chinese virtues.
The most important character is Jilin, a young intelligent but naïve Chinese girl of around twenty years old. She’s typical of female characters in books and movies nowadays: smart and strong-willed but held back by strict parents and conservative culture.
Jilin comes across a severed finger and with the aid of her handsome stepbrother, Shin, searches for where it came from. Along the way, a lot of people mysteriously die. Were they killed by tigers or something or someone else?
The third character is Ren, a Chinese houseboy. Right before his former employer, Dr. MacFarlane dies, the doctor gives him one task that he must complete within 49 days: find his missing finger and bury it with the doctor or else the doctor will turn into a weretiger. The doctor sends him to look for the missing finger in the house of the fourth main character, Dr. William Acton.
People die left and right in this book. There are lots of instances of unrequited love, unspoken love, and the typical lack of communication found in popular fiction.
Whereas The Gift of Rain and The Gardens of Evening Mists are both serious and depressing, The Night Tiger is light, happy, and fun. The plot, the likable characters, and the setting are what make this a success.
I found myself up late at night unable to put the book down because I just had to know who would end up with whom and who murdered whom.
I was charmed by all of the characters. Even the ones at the end who turned out to be the villains were endearing.
And the setting: I’ve been to Ipoh. Best food I had in Malaysia. Interesting shophouse architecture, a street named Concubine Lane, and some very good street art. Somehow Choo made Ipoh and the other towns in the Kinta Valley to be as romantic as Graham Green and Marguerite Duras did with Vietnam. Reading this book after coming back from Malaysia inspires me to explore Malaysia all over again.
7. The Women Who Breathed Two Worlds By Selina Sian Chin Yoke (2016)
If you’re fascinated with the Peranakan culture and Nyonya cuisine like I am, then pick up The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds. Peranakans are the children of Chinese or Indian fathers and Malay mothers. Peranakans take on a bit of both their father and mother’s cultures, forming their own unique hybrid culture. Nyonya is the name for a female Peranakan. If you’ve eaten the delicious soup, laksa, then you’ve had Nyonya food.
The first ten percent of the book is set in Penang, but the rest of it takes place in Ipoh, the tin-mining capital of Malaysia.
It tells the life story of Chye Hoon, a Peranakan woman, and her family. Chye Hoon marries a Chinese man and has ten children with him.
There’s not a lot of action in this novel. It’s more of a book about identity and family. For her children to be successful in the new Malaysia, they must attend English schools and learn English and embrace some of the customs and thinking of the British. Chye Hoon struggles with maintaining her Nyonya traditions and passing them down to her children.
It’s an interesting read. Chye Hoon isn’t my favorite character. Although I respect her love of her traditions, she’s superstitious and prejudiced. Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that the story takes place in the 1930s in order to overlook her misguided views. Still, I enjoyed following Chye Hoon’s journey through time and seeing her overcome her obstacles. And it was a joy reading about the Nyonya traditions, especially the food. I’m still thinking about the delicious Nyonya kueh (cakes) I had while in Malaysia and Singapore.
8. Billion Dollar Whale By Tom Wright and Bradley Hope (2018)
Written by two Wall Street Journal reporters, Billion Dollar Whale tells the story of THE biggest and most audacious financial heist in the world that we know of. A Malaysian from Penang named Jho Low stole over $4.5 billion from a Malaysian government investment fund called 1MDB with the help of Goldman Sachs and other international banks.
He spent the money on lavish parties, the making of the movie The Wolf of Wall Street, presents for his rich and famous friends like Paris Hilton and Leonardo DiCaprio, and on houses, apartments, planes, and boats.
He also used the money to finance the election campaign of Najib Razak, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia and to finance the Prime Minister’s wife’s spending habits.
Billion Dollar Whale will tell you how Jho Low did it, how he got away with it for so long, and how he finally got caught. This is an important and relevant subject that most people have never heard of before.
Unfortunately, if you don’t understand finance very well, you’ll have trouble following along. The authors don’t explain financial concepts and finance terms at all.
I was lost and bored at times, so it took me a long time to get through it. That’s too bad since this book gets at the heart of what is wrong with this world today.
If you are going to read this book, don’t read it piecemeal, or else you’ll find yourself getting more lost.
I was actually able to understand it only after the second time I read it.
if you are able to understand the finance part of it and keep all the names straight, Billion Dollar Whale is a good book to help you understand why people in Malaysians are so unhappy with their government.
9. Crossroads: A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore By Jim Baker (2012)
I picked up Crossroads because I wanted to understand Malaysian and Singaporean history better than what I could get from the back pages of Lonely Planet. Crossroads tells the history of these two countries from its first inhabitants 2,500 years ago to 2006.
The majority of the book was well-written, easy to follow, and not too dry.
It held my attention while lying on the beach in Langkawi and enduring multiple bus and boat rides around Malaysia. I learned a lot about Malaysia that made me appreciate the country more.
Here are some of the highlights:
- How geography impacted culture and society
- The history and culture of the Malay Kampongs (villages)
- The Bumiputera laws that discriminate against the non-Malays
- Honest and critical analysis of the motives of the British in Malaysia
- The honest and fair analysis of why the Japanese easily defeated the Brits in Malaysia.
- The horrific treatment the Chinese suffered at the hands of the Japanese
- The socio-economic situation of the Indians in Malaysia
However, Crossroads lost some steam in the last few chapters when it started describing post-independence history. It got bogged down with endless lists of political parties and their acronyms. As a result, it took me a few months to finish it.
10. Lonely Planet Malaysia and Singapore By Lonely Planet (2019)
When I first wrote this list of books about Malaysia, I had the 2016 version with me, and I said not to get the LP book for Malaysia. But the 2019 version is sooooooo much better than the 2016 one and so I highly recommend getting it for your next trip to Malaysia.
The 2019 guidebook on Malaysia is more inspiring and informative than the 2016 version. Reading this one made me excited to see Malaysia (the 2016 one did not). And it’s got a lot more detailed information that makes it easier to navigate the country.
11. The Rough Guide to Malaysia Singapore & Brunei By Rough Guide (2018)
Instead of my usual choice of Lonely Planet, I decided to give Rough Guides a shot on my trip to Malaysia.
The results were a bit mixed.
The good: For someone who has trouble reading things up close, the fonts used in the Rough Guide are easier to read than those in Lonely Planet’s books.
Rough Guides has better and more background information about a place than Lonely Planet Malaysia does. This is especially good for a country like Malaysia whose sights are not as well-known as those in other countries.
The bad: Reading the city maps is annoying. Lonely Planet has a nice key in alphabetical order, making it easy to search for places. Rough Guides puts the name of the place on the map so that you’ve got to spend half of your time looking for the name of a place on the map.
The biggest problem with the Rough Guide Malaysia book was its binding. I couldn’t read the part of the page that was closest to the center because the book didn’t properly open up all the way.
There are more books on Malaysia than the ones listed above. Here are the rest of the books on my reading list: If you’ve read them, let me know what you think in the comment section below.
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7 January 2023: 2.00 pm
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