Past Events

5 Aug’17 – Nusantara Forum – Book Launch: Once We Were There

once we were there

You are cordially invited to the launch of Bernice Chauly’s stunning new novel, Once We Were There (Epigram Books). The author will be in conversation with Gareth Richards.

Date : 5 August 2017  (Saturday)
Time : 2:30pm – 4.30pm
Venue : Penang Institute, No. 10, Jalan Brown, George Town, Penang

Synopsis
Journalist Delonix Regia chances upon the cultured and irresistible Omar amidst the upheaval of the Reformasi movement in Kuala Lumpur. As the city roils around them, they find solace in love, marriage, and then parenthood. But when their two-year-old daughter Alba is kidnapped, Del must confront the terrible secret of a city where babies are sold and girls trafficked. By turns heart-breaking and suspenseful, Once We Were There is a debut novel of profound insight. It is Bernice Chauly at her very best.

Praise
“A love song to thwarted motherhood and the blunted dreams of the Reformasi movement, Once We Were There is as Malaysian as teh tarik–sweet, dark and a jolt to the senses.” – Mei Fong, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment
“Once We Were There is a timely and important novel. First it plunges the reader into the social, cultural and sexual environment of KL at the turn of the millennium. Then it tells a story which is both heartbreaking and gripping, and deftly illustrates the inextricability of the personal and the political.” – James Scudamore, Somerset Maugham Award-winning author of The Amnesia Clinic

The Author
Bernice Chauly is the award-winning author of five books of poetry and prose; going there and coming back (1997), The Book of Sins (2008), Lost in KL (2008), Growing Up With Ghosts (2011) and Onkalo (2013, “Direct, honest and powerful” —JM Coetzee). Born in George Town, Penang to Chinese-Punjabi teachers, she read Education and English Literature in Canada as a government scholar. She was an Honorary Fellow at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program (IWP) in 2014, has served as Festival Director of the George Town Literary Festival since 2011, and currently lectures at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC). She lives in Kuala Lumpur with her two daughters.

Signed copies of Once We Were There will be on sale. Refreshments will be served.

Please click here for registration.