Discovering Chuah Guat Eng, One of Malaysia's Leading English Language Novelists

I expand my knowledge of what’s currently available in the Malaysian book world by buying books at a discount in major bookstores, adding on five or ten ringgit to the full sale price and seeing if it sells. If it does, I then try and hunt down the publisher to set up an account and get a regular trading relationship going. After selling a copy of Echoes of Silence, I had to hunt a little harder, as the author, Chuah Guat Eng, publishes her books herself. Eventually I ended up with a double bonus – finding a new publisher as well as getting in touch with the author as well. In many countries, self publishing is often akin to vanity publishing, i.e people self publish when they can’t find a publisher interested in their work. That’s hardly the case here. Her first novel, Echoes of Silence, originally published in 1994, has gone into a second printing, her collection of short stories is out of print and her second novel, Days of Change, published last year, has been nominated for a literary prize in Ireland.

I suppose that decision to self publish says quite a lot about Chuah Guat Eng, i.e. she’s someone who knows what she wants and is willing to go to some lengths to get it. Nevertheless when we met in Kuala Lumpur last month, she didn’t strike me as combatative or ego driven, but rather self-deprecating and sensitive. She’s also a great puzzler. I found it unusual that her novels, which are generally considered to be literary without being inaccessible, always have a whodunit element to them. There’s murder in Echoes of Silence and a diamond necklace that flits in and out of her novels and will re-appear in her third novel. She explained that she writes to unravel puzzles. She poses questions to herself and then works through to their solutions, if any, in what she writes. Not surprisingly, she’s an avid reader of detective stories as well as a cryptic crossword fanatic.

She’s also a writer who doesn’t fit into pigeon holes very comfortably. I was struck in one piece I read in preparation for our meeting where she said she was always trying to get out and away from labelling. I myself hadn’t heard the term since leaving Sri Lanka, another country where issues of race, imagined or not, colour much of political and social life. When you see her name, you immediately think she’s yet another Chinese Malaysian woman writer – a whole heap of labels. However when you read her novels and short stories, the labels drop away. For example, her latest novel has a male protagonist and he’s a Malay man as well. Even though her short story collection is out of print, you can find some examples on the internet. Just take a look at one or her more recent short stories, The Bride From Ceylon.. And yet as she’s not out to 'make a point.' You barely notice her deft ability as a label dodger.

Luckily for her readers, Chuah Guat Eng's  writing process  throws up more puzzles that she’s itching to unravel. I noticed in a review of Echoes of Silence, she already had the name of her second novel, Days of Change, in mind. Both novels are interconnected, although each can easily be read as stand-alone pieces of literature. I wondered whether there was another novel on the way. Yes, there is. That wretched diamond necklace still needs to find a home.

As you might expect of a writer who likes a bit of skulduggery, she’s crafty too. However, she doesn’t just confine her craftiness to prod her readers along the trail to towards solutions for the whiffs of crime that drift across her novels, but also demonstrates an apparently effortless craft in producing works that can be read on different levels. From speaking to her, she’s obviously a writer whose mind is fizzing with ideas, as a turn in the plot or the reaction of a character to events prompts new lines to follow. However, the reader barely notices this; her craft prevents her plot from veering off course. Instead those snippets of inspiration are stored up for her next novel or short story.

The best way to be allowed into the workings of her mind his to read her blog.. Here you’ll find reviews of her novels, examples of the breadth and depth of her writing and also discover how much she gives back to the budding Malaysian English language writing community as well.