19 Nov Manicka’s Magic

“I remember sitting next to my brother on the dining table, legs dangling while my mother stood in front of us, filling our mouths with food and our heads with tales from ‘those’ days. In ‘those’ days anything could happen: animals that spoke; humans that shape-shifted or exhibited magical powers; and gods, goddesses and demons that sometimes took human shape, and came to live amongst mortals”.

So begins Terengganu-born Rani Manicka’s autobiographical note about her journey to becoming a storyteller. Her award-winning The Rice Mother tells the tale of 14-year-old Lakshmi leaving her native Ceylon for Malaya and marriage to a man many years her senior (2003). While The Japanese Lover (2009) is a lush, subtle and arresting story that explores the tensions between familial and romantic love.