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"Writers of South Asian descent have been garnering more and more success, acclaim, and attention. Story-Wallah gathers the finest South Asian voices in fiction for the first time in a single volume." "In this book, some of the world's best fiction writers hawk their wares from different parts of the South Asian diaspora - Sri Lanka, India, the United States, Great Britain, Guyana, Malaysia, Trinidad, Fiji - creating a virtual map of the world with their tales. These stories explore universal themes of identity, culture, and home, and Story-Wallah includes a rich array of experiences: a honeymoon in Sri Lanka, the trials of a Bangladeshi refugee in England, life on a sugar plantation in Trinidad, the attempts of an Indian family to arrange a marriage for their rebellious daughter."--Book jacket.
A foodie revenge for a broken marriage; a nosy grandmother takes spying on her neighbours too far; a woman teacher is groomed by an artistic man and his clever son; a brutally short haircut makes a woman reassess her life; a gang-related attack comes back to haunt the perpetrator; a woman revisits the grave of her sister-in-law in Kenya . . . But also: a Roman soldier's lover; a frightened traveller in Jerusalem; a collector of hair in a European country; a teacher in New York is drawn to a girl and her East Asian composer boyfriend; a gay man is swindled during a whirlwind affair; an argument at a coke-fuelled party; three men disappointed at an upmarket sex club; an artist unwittingly precipitates the downfall of David Beckham . . .
The World of Asian Stories is a continuing campaign for storytelling as an effective and non-intrusive tool for sensitisation. This omnibus of stories and storytelling traditions from 43 countries across Asia provides an overview of methods and the multitude of stylistic variations. The book then embarks on a journey through fast-changing landscapes of unique, yet unifying cultural experience, presented through the distinctive voices of people. The focus is on the individual over the din of the dominant. This resource book invites teachers, parents and children to explore storytelling at home and in school. It introduces the reader to basic guidelines, offers tips and suggestions on technique, and provides an abundant pool of stories to draw from and activities to contextualise them. The visuals, too, offer a wealth of reference points. Illustrations are quirky and perceptive, subtly acquiring the flavours of the lands through which they journey. They complement the (sometimes whimsical) vagaries of the stories, creating an ambience of truthful, unassuming and straight-from-the heart storytelling.
From the mountains of Uttrakhand in India to the Rocky Mountain in Canada, the stories in this volume represent the multitude of Asian voices that capture the wishes, aspirations, dreams and conflicts of people inhabiting a vast region of our planet. While some contributions deal with the themes of migration, pandemics and climate change, others give us a peek into the inner workings of the human heart through the prism of these well-wrought stories. This volume is the expression of a community, "a community of Asian writing that stands on its own two - no, its own million - feet!", as novelist and critic Tabish Khair says in his 'Foreword'.
A shape-shifter arrives at Tokyo harbour in human form, set to embark on an unstoppable rampage through the city’s train network… A young woman is accompanied home one night by a reclusive student, and finds herself lured into a flat full of eerie Egyptian artefacts… A man suspects his young wife’s obsession with picnicking every weekend in the city’s parks hides a darker motive… At first, Tokyo appears in these stories as it does to many outsiders: a city of bewildering scale, awe-inspiring modernity, peculiar rules, unknowable secrets and, to some extent, danger. Characters observe their fellow citizens from afar, hesitant to stray from their daily routines to engage with them....
The book begins with a brief survey of the development of modern fiction in Southeast Asia. The fiction of five ASEAN countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand - is reviewed to analyze the major patterns in the relationship between the individual and his society as shown in the following themes: the individual and his identities, alienation and exile, social class and the individual, and commitment.
Set in different cities around the world, Elaine Chiew's award-winning stories travel into the heart of the Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese diasporas to explore the lives of those torn between cultures and juggling divided selves. In the title story, four writers find their cultural bonds of friendship tested when a handsome young Asian writer joins their group. In other stories, a brother searches for his sister forced to serve as a comfort woman during World War Two; three Singaporean sisters run a French gourmet restaurant in New York; a woman raps about being a Tiger Mother in Belgravia; and a filmmaker struggles to document the lives of samsui women—Singapore's thrifty, hardworking construction workers. > Acutely observed, wry and playful, her stories are as worldly and emotionally resonant as the characters themselves. This fabulous debut collection heralds an exciting new literary voice.
As the end of the world arrives in downtown Shanghai, one man’s only wish is to return a library book... When a publisher agrees to let a star author use his company’s attic to write in, little does he suspect this will become the author’s permanent residence... As Shanghai succumbs to a seemingly apocalyptic deluge, a man takes refuge in his bathtub, only to find himself, moments later, floating through the city's streets... The characters in this literary exploration of one of the world’s biggest cities are all on a mission. Whether it is responding to events around them, or following some impulse of their own, they are defined by their determination – a refusal to lose themselves in a city that might otherwise leave them anonymous, disconnected, alone. From the neglected mother whose side-hustle in collecting sellable waste becomes an obsession, to the schoolboy determined to end a long-standing feud between his family and another, these characters show a defiance that reminds us why Shanghai – despite its hurtling economic growth –remains an epicentre for individual creativity.
In this "delightfully uncanny" collection of feminist retellings of traditional Japanese folktales (The New York Times Book Review), humans live side by side with spirits who provide a variety of useful services—from truth-telling to babysitting, from protecting castles to fighting crime. A busybody aunt who disapproves of hair removal; a pair of door-to-door saleswomen hawking portable lanterns; a cheerful lover who visits every night to take a luxurious bath; a silent house-caller who babysits and cleans while a single mother is out working. Where the Wild Ladies Are is populated by these and many other spirited women—who also happen to be ghosts. This is a realm in which jealousy, stu...
Another deluxe edition of new writing and neglected perspectives. Asian ghosts, from India to China, Japan to Thailand, Korea to the Philippines, can be both terrifying and comforting. Underpinned by strong cultural beliefs in the cycles of life and ancestor worship, the nature of Asian spirits differs from that of their counterparts in other areas of the world. The possibility is more instinctually accepted that ghosts remain with us, as part of the world, whether we can see them or not. In Saigon The Daughter of Hui Bi Hua roams the corridors of the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Art, in Japan the Kappa displays an insatiable appetite for cucumbers, in Indonesia the Kuntilanak is a wicked spirit, feared by all, and in Thailand the Preta is a disgusting, hungry ghost. The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.