Malaysian wins French literary award

KUALA LUMPUR: Good stories transcend borders but even Shih-Li Kow (pic) was surprised that the Malaysian story she set out to tell in her debut novel has not only resonated with foreigners but also won a top literary award in France.

The Sum of Our Follies, which was picked up to be translated into French, won the 2018 Prix du Premier Roman Etranger (First novel prize, in a foreign language) in November.

The 50-year-old from Kuala Lumpur said she did not expect the novel would appeal to foreign readers.

“Reading the reviews for the French version of my novel, it took me by surprise. I thought I had written a book that was so local that only Malaysians would get it,” she said.

Set in a fictional small Malaysian town, The Sum of Our Follies revolves around two newcomers to the town. It was first published in English in 2014.

The warm reception from French readers, however, showed that many individuals and communities around the world go through the same experiences and issues that Malaysians faced, said Kow.

“Although we tend to think that the issues that we have are very Malaysian, they are not.

“Issues such as race, change, development, the fear of losing our identity due to modernisation, all this appears in some form or the other in many places around the world,” she said.

The story of how Kow met her French translator, who is blind, is quite extraordinary.

After reading her book, M. Frederic Grellier, now 53, decided to celebrate his wedding anniversary with his wife in Malaysia.

“That was when we first met. And it was his first time in the country,” she said.

The process of Grellier translating her novel (by ear) to French was an interesting one, she added, due to cultural differences.

“There are things that we Malaysians take for granted that are unfamiliar to the French.

Award-winning book: Set in a fictional small Malaysian town, ‘The Sum of Our Follies’ revolves around two newcomers to the town.

“In my novel, I described how some people put eggshells on the leaves of the mengkuang (screwpine leaves). He asked me what it was.

“It’s hard to explain without knowing the context so I sent him a photograph of it; his wife helped explain it to him,” said Kow.

Having gone to boarding schools in Kulim in Kedah and Kluang in Johor in the 1980s, Kow said small towns fascinated her.

“When you travel out of cities such as Kuala Lumpur, you will see a different part of the country.

“There is a certain character in many of the small towns,” she said, adding she was thinking of both Kulim and Kluang when she created the fictional town of Lubok Sayong, the setting of her novel.

Asked whether she is in the midst of writing another novel, Kow, who holds a full-time job as a mall manager, said she was writing short stories at the moment.

“There is a bit of pressure (to start a new novel) from myself.

“It’s like exercising; you feel guilty if you don’t work out when you’ve been regularly doing it,” she said.