The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf

TGATGWhat a gorgeous story. The premise, the telling, the characters: I liked most everything about it. I’d been a little wary because someone had mentioned that it’s about a pelesit who becomes the friend of a little girl. I was wary because pelesit are Malay familiar spirits that are used by their owners to possess victims and I didn’t particularly like the idea of such a creature being turned into a cute Disney-type character. However, my fears were pretty much unfounded. The friendship between the pelesit and the girl is framed in such a way that makes it plausible, natural and even necessary. Also, the spirit itself declares that it is ‘not a character from some childhood tale’, a meta moment that I hugely appreciated. TGATG is a childhood tale, but of course it’s not that kind of childhood tale, the sort that sanitizes the heck out of our stories, wringing out all but their most attractively exotic commercially viable cultural details.Read More »

Bright Landscapes Ebook

My short story collection Bright Landscapes is now available as an ebook, published by Langsuyar Press. The ebook is a revised edition of the original collection and contains additional notes and illustrations.

Bright Landscapes comprises ten stories inspired by Malaysian/Asian myths, legends and supernatural beliefs.

The book costs USD4 and, at the moment, PayPal is the only pay option for readers outside Malaysia (Malaysians or anyone with a Malaysian bank account can pay by fund transfer, email me at daphne@daphnelee.org).

Please leave a note telling me the email you’d like the ebook sent to. Thank you for buying the book, I hope you enjoy it. All comments are welcome on Goodreads.

Order Bright Landscapes!