Indie Spotlight: Malika Gandhi

Indie Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month our indie correspondent Siobhan Daiko talks to Malika Gandhi, who was born in Mumbai, and who writes historical fiction making cross-cultural connections.

Can you tell me something about your debut novel, Freedom of the Monsoon?

The novel is set during the struggle for independence: the British Raj needs to go and the Indians must have their country back. It lets readers re-live the determination of Indians fighting against the British, by following five individuals as they face fear, love, sacrifice and hate.  

Man Booker Prize 2015 longlist

I’m never sure what to make of longlists for literary prizes – it’s quite a chasm between being on a list and winning a prize, even when the list is the shortlist. But for what it’s worth the longlist for the GPB 50,000 Man Booker Prize was announced yesterday, in London.

Published Today: New Asia Now

49 authors under 45 from across Asia have today been published in a themed edition of the Griffith Review, one of Australia’s leading literary magazines. Griffith Review 49: New Asia Now, edited by Julianne Schultz and Jane Camens, and published in parallel with an edition of  Asia Literary Review, takes a journey through the region’s diversity, featuring a new generation of literary stars.

This Week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here is a list of its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, and round ups:

Murder with Bengali Characteristics by Shovon Chowdhury reviewed by Peter Gordon
China’s Forgotten Peoples: Xinjiang, Terror and the Chinese State by Nick Holdstock reviewed by Joshua Bird
A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator’s Rise to Power by Paul Fischer reviewed by Glyn Ford
Picturing Technology in China: From Earliest Times to the Nineteenth Century by Peter J Golas reviewed byJuan José Morales

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Lion City Lit: Exploring South Asian Identity, by Verena Tay

Asian Books Blog is based in Singapore. Lion City Lit explores what’s going on in the City-State, lit-wise. Here, Verena Tay talks about the South Asia Literary Salon, organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. It was chaired by Meira Chand and took place earlier this month.

Authors at Ubud

Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, which runs this year from 28 October until November 1, has announced some of the authors, artists and thinkers who will attend.  More names will follow in August, but for the now, this is the list:

This Week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here is a list of its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, and round ups:

Dreams of the Hmong Kingdom: The Quest for Legitimation in French Indochina by Mai Na M Lee reviewed by Peter Gordon
The China Model: Political Meritocracy and the Limits of Democracy by Daniel A Bell reviewed by Kerry Brown
Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition by Nisid Hajari reviewed by Meera Kumar
The King of Shanghai by Ian Hamilton reviewed byTimothy Sifert

Read Paper Republic

Paper Republic is a collective of literary translators, promoting new Chinese fiction in translation. Last month it launched a fantastic year-long initiative, Read Paper Republic, for readers who are unfamiliar with Chinese fiction, but who wonder what new Chinese fiction in English translation has to offer in manageable formats - so no 500 page novels. 

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

500 Words From Jame DiBiasio

500 Words From...is a series of guest posts from Asia-based, locally-published authors, in which they talk about their latest books. Here Jame DiBiasio, an American financial journalist and crime writer now living in Hong Kong, discusses Cowgirl X, the second in his series of Val Benson thrillers – Val is a feisty female amateur sleuth, and she made her debut in Gaijin Cowgirl. The series is published by Crime Wave Press, in Hong Kong.

Q & A: Merryn Glover

Merryn Glover’s debut novel A House Called Askival was released in paperback in May.

Set in the hill-station of Mussoorie in north India, A House Called Askival is the story of three generations of American missionaries caught up in the political and personal turmoil of religious conflict.  Spanning Partition to the present day, it looks at India's bigger events through the lens of one family and is, at heart, the story of a father and daughter seeking peace - with each other and with their past.

This Week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here is a list of its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, and round ups:

Sixty Four Chance Pieces: A Book of Changes by Will Buckingham reviewed by Jonathan Chatwin
Specimen: Stories by Irina Kovalyova reviewed by Peter Gordon
Outside reading: links to essays, articles, interviews 
China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan reviewed by Rosie Milne
Great Game East: India, China, and the Struggle for Asia’s Most Volatile Frontier by Bertil Lintner reviewed by Francis P Sempa
Let One Hundred Voices Speak: How the Internet is Transforming China and Changing Everything by Liz Carter reviewed by Simone van Nieuwenhuizen

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Just Quickly...

Click here for my review of China Rich Girlfriend, by Kevin Kwan, for Asian Review of Books.

Hong Kong Gothic / Edmund Price

In March, the Hong Kong Writers Circle (HKWC) launched Hong Kong Gothic, the tenth of its annual anthologies of members’ writing. Edmund Price, the lead editor, gives more details.

Just Quickly...

This is not of specifically Asian interest, but you may want to see a piece I wrote for the UK Telegraph on expat themed summer reads. Click here.  

This Week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here is a list of its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, and round ups:

The Black Coat by Neamat Imam reviewed by Manasi Subramaniam
Letter from Hong Kong: an oasis in the literary desert by Peter Gordon
China and the world: beyond exceptionalism by Kerry Brown

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Pen Translates

Two forthcoming titles of Asian interest have been awarded PEN Translates grants. Congratulations to:
Paper Tiger by Xu Zhiyuan, translated from Mandarin by Michelle Deeter and Nicky Harman, published by Head of Zeus, August 2015 

Lost Evenings; Lost Lives by Aazhiyaal, Theva Abira et al, translated from Tamil by Lakshmi Holmström and Sascha Ebeling, published by Arc Publications, October 2015.

Q & A: Alice Clark-Platts

Singapore-based author Alice Clark-Platts, the founder of the Singapore Writers’ Group, has just published her debut novel, Bitter Fruits, through Penguin UK.