New Books

Straight Talk by Tunku Abdul Aziz (RM 40.00)

The vintage articles in the New Straits Times by Tunku Aziz have been keenly read within Malaysia and appreciated for his incisive commentary on the socio-political foibles of the nation, clearly in the throes of crony feudalism in the exercise of power. His serious, fearless and critical opinions were published at a time when radical transformations away from bad practices were being desired by the electorate and observers who wish for achievable ideals in national progress.

Other new Malaysian titles:

1. Penang and Its Region edited by Yeoh Seng Guan, Loh Wei Leng, Khoo Salma Nasution and Neil Khor (RM 45.00)

2. Tangerin&Nikotin by Mimi Morticia (RM 15.00)

Labels: History, Poetry, Politics

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The Loneliest Profession in the World by Jerome Kugan (RM 10.00)

The Loneliest Profession in the World collects new poems written by Malaysian Poet and singer songwriter Jerome Kugan. The poems were written between October 2008 and February 2009, and explores the intricacies of relationship, desire and loss. Memory and emotion collide with acerbic wit and humour to produce an often astonishing and affecting look at the nature of love.



Dua Lauk - Fiksi Popkon dari Zon Imaginasi Terlarang by Taf Teh & D'Ianadi (RM 20.00)

Fiksi Popkon dari Zon Imaginasi Terlarang, adalah kumpulan cerpen oleh dua orang penulis wanita yang semakin dikenali di dunia maya. Pendek, padat dan penuh imaginasi, fiksyen-fiksyen mereka dijangka akan mencarta koordinat baru dalam peta sastera Malaysia.

"Aku tiba di hadapan 7Eleven. Budak-budak Melayu beruniform merah bergurau senda gembira di kaunter. Seronok ya, dik, dapat kerja dalam ekon?"

Dalam koleksi fiksi dua perempuan ni kerja dalam ekon adalah kemuncak hidup, dan mati itu satu kelegaan.

Kerana, siapa mahu hidup dalam dunia yang dipenuhi kucing-kucing pondan, lipas yang ugut minta ufti, lelaki emo yang suka minum susu stroberi, dan mekap yang buat kau nampak macam robot tak berperasaan.

Labels: Fiction, Poetry

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Poems Sacred and Profane: Sajak Sajak Saleh by Salleh ben Joned

The third edition of this, arguably, most important collection of modern Malaysian poetry which was first released in 1987. It is too important a book not to be kept in print. Here are some of the reactions from readers and reviewers. Only Salleh ben Joned can traumatise a whole race!

• "It's like meeting Hang Jebat* on his day off." -- Lat -- *Jebat -- legendary Malay rebel of 15^th - 16^th century Malacca famous for his amok
  
  
• "...below the wit that withers and wounds is the love he bears his own...poems that mix grief, anger, love; the voice of the poet speaking for and at his race, with the voice of the father, the husband, the lover, the would-be mystic still very much of this world -- and revelling in it...Here is Malay as it is seldom heard, returned perhaps to its original vigour..." -- Dawn Menon, The Star
  
  
• The poems "are unconventional and invigorating and explore with arresting sensuality subjects often confined to the philosophical and personal." -- Traveller's Literary Companion to Southeast Asia (1996)
  
  
• "The appearance of Salleh's book ... was the most traumatic experience for the Malay literary scene." -- Prof Muhammad Hj Salleh
  
  
• "Ini puncak sajak penuh rentak seorang penyair tulen lagi jantan bernama Salleh."-- Latiff Mohidin

Labels: Poetry

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The Book of Sins: Poetry and Prose by Bernice Chauly (Price : RM 24.00). (Sorry, the earlier price shown, as RM25, was wrong. Our apologies.)

Structured loosely around the concept of the "7 Deadly Sins", Chauly's second collection of poems examine the depth and complexity of human experience, maneuvering its way through a range of issues and events that have left profound effects on the poet. Largely confessional in nature, issues like marriage, motherhood, are scrutinised in the first section of "sins" and further explorations of the self are portrayed symbolically and metaphorically in the middle section called "contemplation". The work comes to a resolve under "virtues" where an impending death heralds a forgiveness between mother and daughter and prompts a prophetic summation of the themes at work in this collection.

The Old House & Other Stories by Chuah Guat Eng (RM 28.00)

The Old House and Other Stories brings together 9 Malaysian short stories in English written between 1992 and 2002. Most of the stories have appeared in various local and foreign publications and anthologies. Three of them are being published in Malaysia for the first time. With this collection the stories are more readily accessible to students and scholars of Malaysian literature in English and to the general reading public. Professor Quayum adds a literary dimension to this accessibility with his Introduction, where he discusses the stories' major themes, among them child abuse, greed, hypocrisy, superstition and prejudice. These themes reflect the author's social concerns, which are dealt with in the stories without racial or gender bias, demonstrating her neutrality, objectivity and sense of realism. To provide some insight onto the author's philosophy of life and her relationship with religion, race and literary criticism, Professor Quayum's 2005 interview with Chuah Guat Eng is included in this volume.

Labels: Poetry, Politics

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I am Muslim by Dina Zaman

I am Muslim is a selfish journey of faith. Dina meets shamans, nationalists, moderates and gets into all sorts of scrapes, to discover what it means to be Muslim in Malaysia. Heartbreaking, angry and downright funny.

A Noor. I am Muslim is Dina Zaman's first work of non-fiction.She has written for the media since 1994. Her first column, Dina's Dalca was published in the New Straits Times and she has had her share of brickbats. Her works of fiction and poetry have been published locally and abroad.

Dina Zaman's articles about being Muslim in Malaysia today captures the multifaceted aspects of difference and alterity in normative religios life better than many academic studies ...Dr Farish


Tanah Tujuh: Close Encounters with the Temuan Mythos by Antares

Tanah Tujuh is what a large number of Orang Asli tribes call our planet. Tanah Tujuh: Close Encounters with the Temuan Mythos chronicles Antares' initiation into a fast vanishing aboriginal cosmo-mythology that offers an alternative view of reality. Copiously illustrated with sketches and photographs, foreword by eminent anthropologist, Robert Knox Dentan.

Antares is a writer musician and visionary who moved out of the city in 1992 and found himself living amngst the Temuan (the second largest of the peninsular Orang Asli tribes) in the rainforest.


Adam's Dream by Salleh ben Joned

This is Salleh ben Joned's first book of poems since Sajak Sajak Saleh (or Poems Sacred and Profane) and it is entirely in English. Salleh says in his forward that, although English is not his first language - he only learned it in his teens - he has two main reasons for writing in English. Firstly, he thinks that a big majority of his readers seem to be non-Malays, and, secondly, "My satires in Malay, the use of humour, parody, irony ... puns ... and othr forms of word-play seem to have been taken wrongly by most of the Malay readers."

Adam's Dream is an intensely personal collection of poems, to make you laugh out loud or cry or to ponder over.

Salleh ben Joned was born in Melaka. He spent many years Down Under where he became a student of leading Australian poet James McAuley. His first collection of bilingual poetry, Sajak-Sajak Saleh (Teks) was published in 1987. [A second enlarged version was published by Pustaka Cipta in 2002.] It was followed by A book of essays, As I Please (Skoob, 1994) and Nothing is Sacred (Maya Press, 2003).

For free delivery anywhere in Malaysia. Click here.

Labels: Poetry, Politics, Society

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Tankas from a Tsunami by Cecil Rajendra (Hardback, RM 50.00)

Tankas from a Tsunami is a cycle of poems in the aftermath of the horrendous tsunami that struck the Asia-pacific region on 26th December 2004; taking nearly 300,000 lives and leaving a trail of death and devastation that affected millions around the globe.

The tsunami, Rajendra says, brought out the 'best and beast' in men: thecourage / the corruption, the greed / the generosity. The self-sacrifice / the self-promotion, the brave and the braggard, etc. etc.

It spiralled, he adds, into almost a metaphor of the human condition in the new millennium.

For this most taxing themes, Mr Rajendra employs the tanka stanza: the daunting Japanese verse form of 5 lines comprising 31 syllables in a 5-7-5-7-7 arrangement.

Tankas from a Tsunami is Mr Rajendra's 19th collection of poetry.

Labels: Poetry

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