To celebrate International Literacy Day 2022, we’re highlighting seven award-winning books written by local authors who are brilliant minds in Malaysia’s literary landscape.
In a recent interview with Her Royal Highness Tengku Zatashah, she agrees that Malaysia is indeed home to some serious writing scholars. In fact, some of the books listed in this compilation are actually written by some of His Royal Highness’s favorite local writers.
Along with getting royal endorsements, these written works are also internationally recognized for their incredible storyline and revealing (to some). Whether you’re already an avid reader or new to the hobby, it’s fair to say that these award-winning books from Malaysian authors will make great page-turners.
For Malaysia’s best book finds, read on.
Much awaited accidental discomfort must read The sum of our folliesHere are the best award-winning books by Malaysian authors:
The sum of our follies by Shih-Li Kow
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Publication year: 2014
Won the Prize for the First Foreign Novel in France.
The sum of our follies is the story of characters living in a remote town, Lubok Sayong, in an Asian country with no claim to fame apart from its annual floods, dubious legend and general mediocrity.
If Lubok Sayong’s ancestors had been prescient enough to leave behind material evidence to support his legend, even romanticized with half-truths and superstitions, today’s travel guides would have listed Lubok Sayong in their routes.
How the Man in Green saved Pahang, and maybe the world by Joshua Kam
Genre: Fantasy
Publication year: 2020
Won the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.
When a renegade prophet disappears in a swarm of pigeons in Kuala Lumpur, chorister and first witness Gabriel finds himself embarked on a wild road trip along the Malaysian coast. Meanwhile, in a sleepy seaside town, Lydia traces the connections between her late great-aunt’s eccentric lover and her involvement in the communist emergency. As they encounter snakes, Sufi saints, and gods in civilian clothes, they must wrestle with the theologies and stories they once trusted.
accidental discomfort by Karina Bahrin
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Year of publication: 2022
Won the 2022 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.
As far as Malaysian books go, this is one of the latest best. The novel follows Jasmine Leong as she strives to become the next CEO of Phoenix, the family’s billion ringgit company known in particular for its bak kwa.
However, as fate would have it, she discovers a new part of her identity: she is actually a Malay Muslim. This new facet threatens to upset his life and his ambitions. The novel then examines the human cost of a country’s racial policies and paints a portrait of a woman who is unwilling to accept what is destined for her.
The weight of our sky by Hanna Alkaf
Gender: Young adult
Publication year: 2019
Won the American Freeman Book Awards.
An after-school movie night turns into a nightmare when the city erupts in violent race riots between Chinese and Malays. When gangsters enter the theater and take moviegoers hostage, Malaysian Mel is rescued by a Chinese woman but must abandon her best friend to die.
During their journey through the city, Mel sees for herself the devastation caused by the riots. In her village, a neighbor tells her that her mother, a nurse, has been called in to help with the many bodies piling up in the hospital. Mel must survive on her own, with the help of a few kind strangers, until she finds her mother. But the jinn in his mind threatens his ability to cope.
Lake like a mirror by Ho Sok Fong
Genre: Fantasy
Publication year: 2014
Shortlisted for the 2020 UK Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
This book from Malaysia simply needs to be on your reading list. It’s a scintillating exploration of the lives of women shaken by powers beyond their control. Caught between the interstices of rabid urbanization, patriarchal structures and theocratic government, these women find their lives turned upside down in disturbing ways.
The author draws his readers into an atmospheric world of naked sleepwalkers in a rehab center for wayward Muslims, mysterious wooden boxes, gossip at unlicensed hairdressers, hotels with amnesiac clients – a world populated by the ghosts of unspoken words, unmastered desires and uncertain, surreal and utterly true statuses.
The Path Through the Woods: Mushrooms and Mourning by Long Litt Woon
Genre: Memory
Publication year: 2017
Shortlisted for the 2020 UK Warwick Prize for Women in Translation.
Looking for Malaysian books? The path through the woods tells the story of two parallel journeys: an inner journey, through the landscape of mourning, and an outer journey, into the fascinating realm of mushrooms – resilient, adaptable, dizzyingly diverse and essential to the cycles of death and rebirth of nature.
Crown Sorcerer by Zen Cho
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Publication year: 2015
Won the UK Fantasy Award for Best Newcomer.
At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, freed slave, eminently skilled magician and Wizard Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers – one of the most respected organizations in all of Britain – ventures to the border of Fairyland to find out why stocks magic of England are drying up.
But when his adventure brings him into contact with a most unusual comrade, a woman of immense power and unfathomable gift, he embarks on a path that will alter the nature of witchcraft across Britain. and beyond.
Featured and hero image credit: Unsplash