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Like any proper anthology of short fiction, Asian or not, this one is a celebration of, indeed a valentine to, the short story. One way we know we have read a great short story, as you will here again and again, is the recurrent, delicious mistake of feeling like we have actually just read an entire novel. Short stories are dense and compact; novels are, by definition, loose and baggy. To read a short story in one sitting, as we are so tempted to do here, is to have the artistic equivalent of expanding a compressed computer file: so much life comes pouring out, jack-in-the-box or clown-car style, of these meticulously crafted sentences and scenes. These brave, talented, unforgetable writers from the Philippines, Afghanistan, India, Japan and Singapore have compressed so much life, so much hard-fought wisdom, battered grace, and sweet delight, into these seventeen moving stories in alluring voices.


TBASS2022

The Best Asian Short Stories 2022 (Editor: Professor Darryl Whetter)

The Best Asian Short Stories 2021, the latest in the annual TBASS series of anthologies, presents the Asian short story as a constantly evolving, innovative and vibrant mode of literary expression. Edited by Malachi Edwin Vethamani, Professor Emeritus, Nottingham University, this collection brings together the works of twenty Asian writers and writers residing in Asia, namely from Canada, India, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States of America. The broad theme for this collection is the new normal, revolving around the Covid-19 pandemic, with the inclusion of other stories set in the Asian region. The stories on the new normal theme explore how this world-wide pandemic has impinged on private lives and the public world.

The authors whose stories have been selected for TBASS 2021 include Cyril Wong, Sudeep Sen, Elaine Chew, Danton Remoto, Ivy Ngeow, Bella Negi, Terence Toh, Roy Tristan B. Agustin, Bhaswati Gosh, Kiran Bhat, Christina Yin, Gankhu Sumnyan, Parvathi Nayar, Smita P Mukherjee, Susheela Menon, Andrew Innes, Vicky Chong, Donna Abraham Tijo, Namrata Singh, and Jose Varghese.

TBASS2021

The Best Asian Short Stories 2021

Ganga Jamuna is the tale of Abani, an enchanting woman from Nepal. Blessed with remarkable tenacity, Abani tries to tackle every predicament with a silent resolve. When she is faced with a medical situation that seems insurmountable, Singapore, the hallmark of modern medicine, comes to the rescue, and she finds herself traversing borders seeking solutions. This journey proves to be a fulfilling experience and a turning point in more ways than one, as she discovers new allies in strangers.

Sunita Lad Bhamray is an author and educator based in Singapore. After a long rewarding career in teaching, she now enjoys her time devoted to writing. Ganga Jamuna is Sunita’s third book. Her first book, Triumphs on the Turf, was about horse racing in India. It was followed by Grandma Lim’s Persimmons, a storybook for children.

Ganga Jamuna by Sunita Lad Bhamray

In the green heartland of central India, washed by mighty rivers like the Narmada and wrapped by dense primeval forests, a troop of tufted gray langurs chance upon a shiny cellphone. The advent of this gizmo of the Tailless is the first in a series of encounters with human civilisation, which transforms the peaceful simian way of life into a resource intensive economy of langur traders, gamblers, plastic money and the nouveau riche. Soon a scheming golden langur emerges as the prophet of this new order which, driven by greed, inevitably leads to inequality and ecological stress. 

Matters come to a head as tree markings, which are signs of ownership, begin to disappear, the currency exchange collapses and disgruntled langur traders and rebels challenge the power of their prophet. Will the pristine forest habitat and its simian community survive these challenges or will it descend into a tailspin of chaos? Weaving careful research into a quicksilver plot, this satire-laced tale is a modern-day fable about environmental damage and the pipe dream of limitless growth. 

Monkey Business hopes to inspire our generation to ask the right questions and take concrete actions to address fundamental and controversial issues, reform outdated and unsustainable systems and chart a true course that will allow this and future generations to hand over a better Earth to the next.

About the author

Mark Tan lives in Singapore, where he runs a successful communications consultancy. The idea for this book came about when he was travelling to India in a previous job.

Captivated by its rich culture and charmed by the warm hospitality of its people, Mark has used India’s vibrant tapestry of life to weave a short and intricate tale that tells of the pressing and perilous situation that the world has gotten itself into.



Monkey Business by Mark Tan

Cultural Medallion winner Isa Kamari’s new novella, Tweet, is a high-quality work of imaginative fiction that marries traditional storytelling with a modern theme. The novel is set in Singapore’s bird park, an international tourist destination and an iconic bird sanctuary. Isa Kamari, through a dialogue between a Singaporean grandfather and his grandchild, ponders over the stress and demands of our modern human existence. Through the grandchild’s innocent questions, the author exposes us to the frailties of our modern life. Intermixed in the narrative is the famous fable of Simurg, the legendary bird, that some of the birds of the bird park are deliriously desirous of meeting. They embark upon a journey that brings them face-to-face with a reality that they had not imagined even in their dreams. In his first ever English language work, Isa Kamari shows us a new facet of his storytelling abilities, which is part philosophical and part imaginative.

Isa Kamari has written in Malay, 9 novels, 2 collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, a book of essays on Singapore Malay poetry, a collection of theatre scripts and lyrics of 2 song albums. His novels have been translated into English, Turkish, Urdu, Indonesian and Mandarin. His collections of essays and selected poems have been translated into English. Isa was conferred the S.E.A Write Award in 2006, Singapore Cultural Medallion in 2007 and the Anugerah Tun Seri Lanang in 2009.

Tweet by Isa Kamari

Attiya's cheating husband is murdered in a Bangkok nightclub, leaving her to raise their ten year old son, Den, alone. The killer, Surapat Wongsuphan, is a member of the country's "elite", who expects his father's wealth to once again get him out of trouble. But this time it's different. As Thailand's Old Money families rally against the Wongsuphan's, Attiya, Den and Surapat's lives will change in the most unexpected ways -- even as fate binds them together.

Set in Bangkok, Vientiane and London, "The Mask Under My Face" is about what happens when those above the law fall within the reach of the powerless.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mithran Somasundrum was born in Colombo and grew up in London. He has lived and worked in Bangkok for almost twenty years. His short fiction has been published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, The Sun, The Minnesota Review, Natural Bridge, and Best Asian Short Stories 2017, among others. He has written on Thai politics for The Guardian (UK).

Author discount

The Mask Under My Face by Mithran Somasundrum

ISBN: 978-981-14-8042-3
Title: The Best Asian Short Stories 2020

From the mountains of Uttrakhand in India to the Rocky Mountain in Canada, the stories in this volume represent the multitude of Asian voices that capture the wishes, aspirations, dreams and conflicts of people inhabiting a vast region of our planet. While some contributions deal with the themes of migration, pandemics and climate change, others give us a peek into the inner workings of the human heart through the prism of these well-wrought stories. This volume is the expression of a community, "a community of Asian writing that stands on its own two – no, its own million – feet!", as novelist and critic Tabish Khair says in his 'Foreword'. 



The Best Asian Short Stories 2020

Ever since she could read, Vidya Patel realised that she preferred books to humans. Her family disapproves, but Vidya meanders through life with her nose in a book. When she is ten, she visits the Macmillan, a struggling heritage library in Mumbai. It is in the Macmillan that Vidya truly, finally, feels whole. Vidya befriends Shekhar Raghavan, the brilliant, eccentric librarian, who becomes her mentor. As soon as she is old enough, she joins the library as a junior librarian, and throws herself into keeping the Macmillan going, with consequences she could never have foreseen. She also learns the destructive power of obsession, and what it does to people. Will Vidya be able to save the Macmillan? And at what cost? “The Librarian” is a dark, powerful novel that will appeal to everybody who has ever loved a book, or found happiness in a library.

Kavitha Rao is a journalist and author based in Bangalore, India. Her first book, "Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Journalism ( but didn't know whom to ask)" was published by Westland in 2014. She lives to read and reads to live. Her website is at www.kavitharao.net. 

The Librarian by Kavitha Rao

Fittingly for a crime collection, this debut anthology offers thirteen stories, stretching from India to Japan, with key stops along the way in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. Some of the authors whose work is being showcased in this anthology are Priya Sood, Carol Pang, Timothy Yam, Lee Ee Leen, Wendy Jones Nakanishi, Ricardo Albay, and Aaron Ang, among others.

Richard Lord has written or co-written over 20 books. He was the editor of two popular crime fiction anthologies: Crime Scene Singapore and Crime Scene Asia. He wrote the acclaimed novel The Strangler’s Waltz, and one of his crime short stories was adapted as a TV mini-series by Singapore’s Mediacorp.

The Best Asian Crime Stories 2020

The Best Asian Crime Fiction 2020

War, loss, love, compassion, nightmares, dreams, hopes and catastrophes; this is literary Asia at its best. From a wide range of geographies spanning from Palestine to Japan, from Kazakhstan to the Malaysia, mobilizing a wide array of innovative narrative styles and writing techniques, the short stories of this anthology, carefully curated by one of Asia’s prominent and daring writers, will take you on a power trip of deep exploration of local (yet global) pains and hopes, a celebration (and contemplation) of humanity and its impact, as explored by 24 writers and 6 translators, many of whom identify with many homes, giving Asia what it truly represents across (and beyond) its vast territory, expansive history, and many traditions and languages. This book is an open celebration of multi-faceted creativity and plurality. The Best Asian Short Stories 2019 includes JOEL DONATO JACOB (Philippines) LANA ABDEL RAHMAN (Lebanon) RAZIA SULTANA KHAN (Bangladesh) DEENA DAJANI (Palestine) ALAN IRID FENDI (Syria) SAMIDHA KALIA (India) SCOTT PLATT-SALCEDO (Philippines) ANITHA DEVI PILLAI (Singapore) ANGELO WONG (Hong Kong) ODAI AL ZOUBI (Syria) SIMON ROWE (New Zealand / Japan) SEEMA PUNWANI (Singapore) VRINDA BALIGA (India) NAMRATA PODDAR (India / USA) T.A. MORTON (Irealand / Hong Kong) HAMID ISMAILOV (Uzbekistan) SUCHI GOVINDARAJAN (India) YD CHANG (China / Malaysia) JOLIN KWOK (Malaysia) IMRAN KHAN (Bangladesh) YAN TI (Taiwan) ZIRA NAURZBAYEVA (Kazakhstan) KAISA AQUINO (Philippines) JOSE VARGHESE (India)

About the Editors

Hisham Bustani, TBASS 2019’s editor is an award-winning Jordanian author of five collections of short fiction and poetry. He is acclaimed for his bold style and unique narrative voice, and often experiments with the boundaries of short fiction and prose poetry. Much of his work revolves around issues related to social and political change, particularly the dystopian experience of post-colonial modernity in the Arab world. His work has been described as “bringing a new wave of surrealism to [Arabic] literary culture, which missed the surrealist revolution of the last century,” and it has been said that he “belongs to an angry new Arab generation. Indeed, he is at the forefront of this generation – combining an unbounded modernist literary sensibility with a vision for total change…. His anger extends to encompass everything, including literary conventions.” Hisham’s fiction and poetry have been translated into many languages, with English-language translations appearing in prestigious journals across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, including The Kenyon Review, The Poetry Review, Modern Poetry in Translation, World Literature Today, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. In 2013, the U.K.-based cultural webzine The Culture Trip listed him as one of Jordan’s top six contemporary writers. His book The Perception of Meaning (Syracuse University Press, 2015) won the University of Arkansas Arabic Translation Award. Hisham is the Arabic Fiction Editor of the Amherst College-based literary review The Common, and the recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation’s prestigious Bellagio Residency for Artists and Writers for 2017.

Zafar Anjum is a Singapore-based journalist, writer and entrepreneur. For eight years, he was the online editor of Computerworld Singapore, Computerworld Malaysia, CIO Asia and MIS Asia. He is the author of six fiction and non-fiction titles, including the best-selling The Resurgence of Satyam (Random House India, 2012), Iqbal: The Life of a Poet, Philosopher and Politician (Random House India, 2014) and Startup Capitals: Discovering the Global Hotspots of Innovation (Random House India, 2014). He is the director of Kitaab.org.


The Best Asian Short Stories 2019  (English, Paperback, Series Editor Zafar Anjum, Editor Hisham Bustani)

In this vibrant and poignant portrait of childhood, Anita A. Thomas weaves a deft narrative, bringing Amako’s world to life  with not just words, but sketches and vignettes in the form of drawings, text messages, emails and letters to his family, friends and confidants (including God). It is a world that will instantly draw you in. Nicknaming himself after the mackerel shark, Amako's wit, imagination and optimistic yet honest view of life reveals his fears, hopes and dreams.

Senserly Amako by Anita Thomas

It is a story of a honeymooning couple in Delhi, Agra, Kashmir, Kathmandu and finally Mecca. The story unveils the true nature of Ilham, the husband whom Nazreen thought was a pious and morally upright person. As it turned out he was overwhelmed by his sexual desire and abuses her. Nazreen maintained her calm and integrity and tries to seek solace in their final destination, Mecca.

As they were performed the Umrah, Nazreen was kidnapped by a taxi driver. Ilham was shocked and at a loss. Disappointed he left Mecca, blaming God for his misfortune. He vowed not to return to the Holy Land.

In Singapore, Ilham continued with his hedonistic ways and kept a Chinese mistress whom he met at a massage parlour. Susan had an ailing mother who dreamt that her sickness would only be cured if she visited Mecca. Incidentally, Ilham was coaxed by Nazreen’s friend to return to Islam and amend his ways. He decided to marry Susan who presented him with a condition: they must visit Mecca with her mother.

Ilham was in a dilemma. Would he return to Mecca? Finally, he did, but not without deep introspection. A mysterious event ensued. He met his destiny in front of the Kaabah.

Kiswah attempts to probe the relationship between sexuality and spirituality, by letting both confront one another to find peace.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Isa has written nine novels in Malay: Satu Bumi, Kiswah, Tawassul, Menara, Atas Nama Cinta, Memeluk Gerhana, Rawa, Duka Tuan Bertakhta and Selendang Sukma. His novels have been translated into English, Mandarin, Turkish, Urdu, Thai, Arabic and Indonesian. Tweet which was published in 2018 is his first novel written in English. He has also published three collections of poems, Sumur Usia, Munajat Sukma and Mantera Yang Hilang. In addition, he has also published a collection of short stories, Sketsa Minda, a collection of theatre scripts, Pintu and a book on Singapore Malay poetry, Potret Puisi Melayu Singapura. Isa was conferred the S.E.A. Write Award (2006), the Cultural Medallion (2007), the Anugerah Tun Seri Lanang (2009) and Anugerah Sastera Mastera (2018).

Kiswah, A novel by Isa Kamari