Thursday, April 16, 2009

Readings from Echoes of Silence

In a session called Anatomizing the colonised mind: reading and discussion of Echoes of Silence, the author, Chuah Guat Eng, will read from her novel on Saturday, 23 May at Silverfish Books, 58-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 228 448 37) at 5.00pm.

Echoes of Silence is the first full-length novel in English by a Malaysian woman. Critically acclaimed when it first appeared in 1994, it has been enjoyed by general readers, and studied by students and scholars of postcolonial literature in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.

Echoes is a multi-faceted novel, which can be enjoyed at several levels. Although it is written in the first person, the novel is not autobiographical. And although there is a murder and murder investigation, it is not simply a detective thriller. For the reading Chuah will focus on excerpts illustrating the novel's exploration of the colonised mind. "In March 1970, as a direct result of the May 1969 racial riots, I left Malaysia." -- So begins the story of Lim Ai Lian, a Chinese Malaysian.

Besides Echoes of Silence, Chuah's other published literary works are Tales from the Baram River (2001), a collection of Sarawak folktales retold for children, and The Old House and Other Stories (2008), a collection of short stories written and published in various publications and anthologies between 1992 and 2002. She works part-time as a corporate communications consultant and occasionally runs lecture courses at universities.


Admission is free but seats will be on first-come-first-served basis.