Tale of the Dreamer's Son

By the author of the international bestseller Evening Is The Whole Day, this novel set in Malaysia will appeal to readers of Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai

In what was once a Scottish tea planter's mansion in the highlands of Peninsular Malaysia, all religions are one and race is unheard of. That is, until the occupants of what is now known as the Muhibbah Centre for World Peace are joined by Salmah, a Malay Muslim woman. "All are welcome here," they are reminded by their spiritual leader, Cyril Dragon, who is ignoring news of the changing political climate with its increasing religious intolerance. He is still trying to forget May 13, 1969, when ethnic tensions boiled over into bloodshed. Tale of the Dreamer's Son guides us from that fateful incident in Malaysian history to the present day. Throughout, Samarasan's polyphonic, rambunctious prose brilliantly navigates the tug-of-war between ideals and reality.

Praise for Evening Is the Whole Day

An impressive debut. The language bursts with energy, and Samarasan has a sure hand juggling so many distinct characters. Publishers Weekly

A strong, spirit-spiked story about caste and unfairness, as furious, controlled, cool and urgent as Aravind Adiga's White Tiger and an introduction to a writer whose talent with narrative structure combines elegance and potency. ALI SMITH

This is a claustrophobic novel of one family's emotional failure. Samarasan's inventive prose is stunning. The Guardian

Extraordinarily incisive, Samarasan provocatively links the sorrows of one distraught family to Malaysia's bloody conflicts in a surpassingly wise and beautiful debut novel about the tragic consequences of the inability to love. Booklist

Preeta Samarasan's passionate, striking book, stunned with light and heat, is full of the memory of enchantment and the enchantment of memory. Samarasan cultivates with brilliance the taut battle between the public and familial being, and the hidden and fragile inner self, trapped in a world of myth and mystery. SUSANNA MOORE, author of The Big Girls

A wonderfully engaging novel, poignant yet comical, about the contradictions and hazards inherent in a modern, postcolonial world. M. G. VASSANJI, author of The In-Between World of Vikram Lall

Rich, quirky, and colorful. Evening Is the Whole Day captures not just the sense of a family struggling to deal with its past, but the crazy uncertainty of a country coming to terms with itself.TASH AW, author of The Harmony Silk Factory

Samarasan captures beautifully the conflict both within the family and the country during the early years of Malaysia's independence. Vibrant, descriptive, and peppered with colourful Indian-Malaysian dialogue, this is an epic that's informative without being wordy, and engrossing but not frivolous. FRANCESCA SEGAL, The Observer

You won't find India's heat and dust here; you will sense the moist warmth of South-East Asia. Samarasan represents the quiet emergence of new Malaysian writing in books such as Rani Manicka's The Rice Mother and Touching Earth, Tash Aw's The Harmony Silk Factory, and Tan Twan Eng's Booker-longlisted The Gift of Rain last year. These writers have significantly broadened our understanding of the region. SALIL TRIPATHI, The Independent

A richly complex debut, weaving the troubled Malaysia of the 1980s with a dark, delicious Dickensian family drama. Waterstones Books Quarterly

A magical, exuberant tragic-comic vision of post-colonial Malaysia reminiscent of Rushdie and Roy. In prose of acrobatic grace, Samarasan conjures a vibrant portrait, by turns intimate and sweeping, of characters and a country coming of age. The debut of a significant, and thrilling new talent. PETER HO DAVIES, author of The Welsh Girl

An accomplished and magical debut. New Books Magazine

Preeta Samarasan details the colourful and secretive lives of the Rajeskhrans, a wealthy Indian immigrant family. She keeps us guessing as the secrets that led to the family's relocation are slowly revealed. Image Magazine

Vorwort

Second novel by the Malaysian author of international bestseller Evening Is the Whole Day A sweeping view of Malaysia's history and ethnic tensions An investigation of the psychology of cults For readers of Zadie Smith, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai Advance galleys and digital reader copies Digital assets including trailer & author video National TV, radio, print, and online review & advertising campaign Book club discussion guide Bookstore co-op available Excerpt placement Social media campaign & Goodreads Giveaway Virtual or in-person author events

Autorentext
Preeta Samarasan was born in Malaysia and moved to the United States during high school. Her first novel, Evening Is the Whole Day, was longlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction and won the 2008 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. Her short fiction has won the Asian American Writers' Workshop Short Story Competition and been selected for a PEN/O. Henry Prize Collection. Her work has been published in A Public Space, Guernica, Copper Nickel, AGNI, and other journals. She lives with her family in the Limousin region of France.

Klappentext

By the author of the international bestseller Evening Is The Whole Day, this novel set in Malaysia will appeal to readers of Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai

In what was once a Scottish tea planter's mansion in the highlands of Peninsular Malaysia, all religions are one and race is unheard of. That is, until the occupants of what is now known as the Muhibbah Centre for World Peace are joined by Salmah, a Malay Muslim woman. "All are welcome here," they are reminded by their spiritual leader, Cyril Dragon, who is ignoring news of the changing political climate with its increasing religious intolerance. He is still trying to forget May 13, 1969, when ethnic tensions boiled over into bloodshed. Tale of the Dreamer's Son guides us from that fateful incident in Malaysian history to the present day. Throughout, Samarasan's polyphonic, rambunctious prose brilliantly navigates the tug-of-war between ideals and reality.

Zusammenfassung
In what was once a Scottish tea planter's mansion in the highlands of Peninsular Malaysia, all religions are one and race is unheard of. That is, until the occupants of what is now known as the Muhibbah Centre for World Peace are joined by Salmah, a Malay Muslim woman. All are welcome here, they are reminded by their spiritual leader, Cyril Dragon, who is trying to ignore news of the changing political climate with its increasing religious intolerance. He is still trying to forget May 13, 1969, when ethnic tensions boiled over into bloodshed. Tale of the Dreamer's Son guides us from that fateful incident in Malaysian history to the present day. Throughout, Samarasan's polyphonic, rambunctious prose brilliantly navigates the tug-of-war between ideals and reality.

Inhalt
Contents Annunciation x PART 1 Cinta Pandangan Pertama Batchmates The Sad Tale of Salmah Majid Forecast Presentation Of Namesakes and Lineages Toilets The Lucky Ones Are Dead or Mad Home Life PART 2 Wise Men Say Persuasion The Whole Truth Star Boy New Reading Matter Spine Fritters The Unwilling Confidant The Prize Students The Worried Father Trail Teacher Training Stargazers A Tentative Alliance Reza's Questions Family Walk Orange Squash All's Fair Tracksuit Vegetable Lorry Neela Experiments with Truth A Mother's Warnings Foretellings Descent Operation Lalang PART 3 Latifah Just Say It (Re)Education Asylum Application Self-Discoveries The Knotty Problem of the Non-Mahram Freehairs Reversion The Minister Lets Fly at a Press Conference Chicken Food Fair It Seems The Anointed One Born-Agains Night Terrors Canteen Brawl Glow in the D…