Soon after we were married, the Curate and I spent some time living in South East Asia. A few months ago we enjoyed seeing friends from both Malaysia and Singapore.
When Lawstudent came to visit us, we were excitedly reminiscing about our time in Kuala Lumpur, where we’d known him as he was growing up. We showed him a few of the books we’d bought and read when we were there. Our favourite was ‘Generation’ by Amir Muhammad, Kam Raslan and Sheryll Stothard (only available second-hand now, see this review for more details).
Lawstudent read the book whilst he was staying here, and was delighted and surprised by the witty insight into Malaysian life that he encountered on its pages.
‘I didn’t know that Malaysians could write this well’ he commented. ‘In fact, at home, my friends and I had a phrase for things that were a bit shoddy or hopeless. We’d say it was
local.
The Vicar's Wife 