Tale of the Dreamer's Son
By the author of the international bestseller Evening Is The Whole Day, this novel set in Malaysia will appeal to readers of Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai
In what was once a Scottish tea planter’s mansion in the highlands of Peninsular Malaysia, all religions are one and race is unheard of. That is, until the occupants of what is now known as the Muhibbah Centre for World Peace are joined by Salmah, a Malay Muslim woman. 'All are welcome here,' they are reminded by their spiritual leader, Cyril Dragon, who is ignoring news of the changing political climate with its increasing religious intolerance. He is still trying to forget May 13, 1969, when ethnic tensions boiled over into bloodshed. Tale of the Dreamer’s Son guides us from that fateful incident in Malaysian history to the present day. Throughout, Samarasan’s polyphonic, rambunctious prose brilliantly navigates the tug-of-war between ideals and reality.
'Samarasan(Evening Is the Whole Day) sets afearless and complex family saga against the social and political upheaval ofmodern-day Malaysia. The writing is dazzling and poetic; Yusuf’s narrationsoars over place and time and renders the cast with astounding clarity. Fans ofMin-Jin Lee, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Laila Lalami will find much to admire.' — Publishers Weekly, starred review
'Politics, religion, culture and love collide on every page of Preeta Samarasan’s new novel. At once furious and funny, majestic and intimate, Tale of the Dreamer’s Son is an ode to the glorious and complex mess that is Malaysia.' — Tash Aw
'Samarasan continues to be a wonder, a wryly vibrant, passionately astute chronicler of recent Malaysian history.' — Peter Ho Davies
'Tale of the Dreamer’s Son is a riveting, painful, funny read from the author of the powerful Evening Is the Whole Day. I’d been waiting for this book. Nobody writes like Preeta Samarasan. Through astute characterization, sheer drama, evocative settings, superb prose, and blended language, Samarasan draws me into all the deep questions that rattle the foundations of her beloved Malaysia. I love this book in many ways, for the storytelling, for the music in her writing, for the images, but also for how it reminds me of how issues in Malaysia continue to mirror ours in Nigeria and many other parts of the world. What a fantastic, fantastic book!' — Uwem Akpan, author of Say You're One of Them and New York, My Village
Preeta Samarasan was born in Malaysia and moved to the United States during high school. Her first novel, Evening Is the Whole Day, was longlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction and won the 2008 Association for Asian American Studies Book Award. Her short fiction has won the Asian American Writers’ Workshop Short Story Competition and been selected for a PEN/O. Henry Prize Collection. Her work has been published in A Public Space, Guernica, Copper Nickel, AGNI, and other journals. She lives with her family in the Limousin region of France.
