Thursday, May 10, 2007

A Great Selection at MPH Mid Valley, Kuala Lumpur

FOUND a couple of wonderful paperbacks at MPH MidValley today, including Vikram Chandra’s latest doorstopper of a tome. Quite a satisfying catch, a wide-ranging selection of good titles, especially Kim Edward’s accomplished collection of short stories, The Secrets of a Fire King (1997), first published by W.W. Norton & Co. in 1997. I believe it is the first time this collection of stories is being sold in Malaysia. There are two stories set here in Malaysia in this collection: “Sky Juice” and “Gold.” This collection of stories was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award.

Novels
1. The Time in Between (2005) / David Bergen
2. Sacred Games (2006) / Vikram Chandra
3. The Pesthouse (2007) / Jim Crace
4. On Green Dolphin Street (2001) / Sebastian Faulks
5. A Place of Greater Safety (1992) / Hilary Mantel
6. The Road (2006) / Cormac McCarthy
7. Black Swan Green (2006) / David Mitchell
8. The Perfect Man (2006) / Naeem Murr
9. Confessions of an Old Boy (2007) / Kam Raslan
10. Kept: A Victorian Mystery (2006) / D.J. Taylor
11. Breathing Lessons (1988) / Anne Tyler
12. The Accidental Tourist (1985) / Anne Tyler
13. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1982) / Anne Tyler
14. Seizure (2007) / Erica Wagner
15. The Crocodile Fury (1992) / Beth Yahp

Stories
1. The Secrets of a Fire King (1997) / Kim Edwards
2. The Stories of Mary Gordon (2006) / Mary Gordon

2 Comments:

Blogger Paul said...

Hi, Eric. I enjoy your blog. You, your friends, or your blog readers might be interested in my first novel, SAUDI MATCH POINT, published last month by Blacksmith Books of Hong Kong.
As far as I know, it’s the only novel in English set entirely in modern-day Saudi Arabia. Strict Islamic practices figure heavily in the narrative - a point that might interest Malay readers, in particular.

One of the novel's two intersecting plotlines looks at the implications of the U.S. using an al Qaeda hostage-taking as a pretext for seizing Saudi oilfields: tomorrow’s news headlines - today. The other follows the tribulations and trials of a poor Saudi woman trying to escape a pending arranged marriage.
You can see more about the book and buy it at www.blacksmithbooks.com for US$10, which includes the cost of international shipping.

Regards,
Paul Ulrich

Thursday, May 17, 2007 5:50:00 PM  
Blogger Eric Forbes said...

Hello Paul - Thanks for your kind words. And congratulations on your first novel, Saudi Match Point. I look forward to reading it one of these days.

Thursday, May 17, 2007 6:08:00 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home