Synopsis
BELONGING, ESPIONAGE, AND BETRAYAL. In modern Kuala Lumpur, a brief encounter with a long-forgotten perfume sends Hamid staggering back to the memory of his youth in London’ s Great Smog of 1952, to a Malaya on the cusp of independence and to the terror of being chased by Soviet tanks in an epic uprising in Cold War East Berlin. Hoping to be saved by the fading Empire his father has served, Hamid must rely on his own wits (never a good idea) to be useful to a ruthless Soviet Colonel and his enigmatic mistress. How does one even end up in such a situation? Well, it started with a disastrous Christmas in the English countryside and three competitive friends. Join Hamid as he quests for a home he can never find, for nice things, for love and for identity. Comic and thrilling, this post-colonial novel sets the end of Empire in a global context with the unwitting Hamid at the centre; educated in the tastes of a bygone era, searching for the one who might make him whole.
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About the Author
Kam Raslan is a Malaysian writer and broadcaster. Originally a filmmaker working in London, Los Angeles, Malaysia, and Indonesia, he has written for many publications including the Economist, Mekong Review, and he had a long-running column in the The Edge Malaysia. He hosts two shows on BFM Radio: A Bit of Culture and Just For Kicks. Kam Raslan is the author of Confessions of an Old Boy, a collection of short stories, the various adventures of Dato? Hamid from the 1940s to the 2000s. The book was first published in 2008 and has been re-printed in 2024.
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. 1953, Cold War, cusp of Independence and adulthood, England, Berlin, Malaya. An unfortunate young Malayan student must choose where his loyalties lie.London, 1952. Young man Hamid, adrift from his studies and from himself, uncertain of his future and that of Malaya, not yet a country. He wants to belong to something but is it to his Sultan, to a barely imagined nation or to the British Empire? The answer, he believes, is to find a wife.In the Great Smog, he meets Tom Pelham, an old friend from Malaya and son of a former British Resident, who invites Hamid to spend Christmas at his family estate. Excited, Hamid anticipates reuniting with his childhood crush, Clare Pelham, only to be met with another pleasant surprise- Clare's two competitive friends, Hermione and Margaret. Hamid finds them as exotic as they find him. Caught in the middle of the three women, Hamid does the unthinkable, loses Clare's trust and is thrown out of the house. But all is not lost. Tom offers Hamid a route back to redemption and to Clare-if he spies for England.Cold War Berlin, 1953. Hamid is sent to seduce an East German communist student leader. Abandoned in East Berlin when it is sealed off during a violent uprising (unknown today outside Germany), Hamid must save himself from Soviet tanks and rely on the unknown loyalties of a Soviet Colonel and especially on the wits of his mistress, loyal only to herself. Hamid must cross the final bridge to safety, to adulthood and to belonging to something, or to someone. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9789815233858
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