Review of A Spoonful of Malaysian Magic
A Spoonful of Malaysian Magic, edited by Anna Tan (Teaspoon Publishing, 2023), is a delightful anthology of short stories by Malaysian authors and featuring the legends and tales of Malaysia as elements of those stories. A handful of the stories are also themed around cooking and food, and others around family, though not all share these themes.
The stories in this anthology were wonderful, but a few stood out especially for me. “Visitor in the Night” by Zufar Zeid includes a forgotten goddess and the gorgeous stories she recounts. Rowan C’s “Taxation” depicts a fantasy-style society in which monthly taxes to the central government are a significant plot point, while also showing a family unit comprising four adults in two couples and the children of one couple (which I really love as a version of a family not seen as much in Western fiction). Sharmila Ganesan’s “Remembering How to Cook” is a beautiful tale of magical food and memory and family. “Up in Flames” by Stuart Danker is a cute twist on dreams and prophecy as they intersect in a young person who wants to be a wizard no matter what. Finally, “The Fiery Tale of Embun and the Prince” by Julia Alba, about an orphan girl and the prince who saved her, combines beautiful prose and a powerful message about expectations and normalcy.
Though I haven’t mentioned all of the stories in this anthology, every one of them is equal parts exciting and moving. If you’re wanting to expand your reading horizons into a culture you may know little about, A Spoonful of Malaysian Magic is a fantastic starting point! The anthology comes out tomorrow, November 23!
The publisher provided me with an advance copy of this anthology for review consideration.
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