Some writers take years to complete their masterpieces, Dina Zaman, the author of “I Am Muslim” took slightly more than a decade to complete her collection of short stories which date back as far as when she was a masters student at Lancaster University in 1993. Her new book, King of the Sea, contains stories were inspired by her homesickness and her longing for a whiff of the Terengganu air which she grew up breathing.
She explores themes of love, grief, loss and longing, and the magic in our lives. A young boy, grieving for his late father, meets a ghost who tells him that he is the king of the sea. Alia, a missing child, comes back as a chicken to bewildered parents. A daughter witnesses an affair by her unfaithful mother, but she is not sure if she was hallucinating. A young man arrives on an island, and marries a jungle spirit, a bunian. Hell breaks lose in a small village when a brash modern city woman decides to live there. A teacher who longs for a more glamorous life, literally, disappears into a movie screen.
With over 17 years experience in the media industry, she has also published various fiction and non-fiction books and is currently studying saints, and other holy men and women, and their impact on Malaysia for her next book Holy Men, Holy Women under the API Fellowship 2012-2013 programme.
There will be a launch of the book, King of the Sea this Sunday (25 March 2012) during the Arts for Grabs event at The Annexe at 6.00 pm. You can also purchase her book at only RM24 at www.silverfishbooks.com. Dina Zaman is a journalist, researcher and NGO activist.
