On menopause and being Malay: Author Karina Robles Bahrin opens up on award-winning debut novel ‘The Accidental Malay'
Aspiring to be the CEO of a company isn’t easy on any person.
Especially when one is a woman who finds out she is actually of Malay parentage after growing up thinking she was Chinese.
The Accidental Malay, Karina Robles Bahrin’s debut novel, explores race, religion, and womanhood in a satirical tale.
“I always knew this story would be the first one I wrote.”, she told Malay Mail.
“I wanted to explore how a policy could tear down a woman’s life.”
The Accidental Malay follows Jasmine Leong, an heiress of a bak kwa company who discovers her Malay identity.
Winner of Epigram Books of Fiction Prize 2022, Bahrin was awarded RM78,000 for her manuscript and a publishing contract.
She is the second Malaysian winner after Joshua Kam’s 2020 novel How The Man In Green Saved Pahang, And Possibly The World.
A page-turner full of twists and a dysfunctional love story, the novel has received critical praise from Tash Aw, Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, and Amir Muhammad.
Robles Bahrin, confident with the story’s message, had no plans to tone down the touchy subject matter of the Malay identity as the book’s focus. Read More...
