A small British press gambled on experimental books - and it paid off

Kristen Vida Alfaro, Tilted Axis’s publisher, centre, with some of the press’s staffers and authors: Phuong Anh, top left; Meera Ghanshamdas, bottom left; Tra My Hickin, top right; and Khairani Barokka, bottom right, at Libreria bookstore in London. Photo: @2025 The New York Times Company

A few years ago, translator Jeremy Tiang was browsing in a bookstore in Singapore when he came across an unusual book of stories.

Written in Chinese under a pen name, the book, Delicious Hunger, drew on author Hai Fan’s 13 years fighting in the jungles of Malaysia and southern Thailand as a guerrilla soldier with the Malayan Communist Party.