Fantasy writer mines modern Malaysia’s cultural complexity

Mixing modernity and spirit folklore, Zen Cho’s new novel brings a staunchly authentic portrait of Malaysia to the world.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Hearing the voice of her dead grandmother inside her head is the icing on a cake of problems for Malaysian zillennial Jessamyn Theo. Ah Ma has come back from the afterlife to nudge Jess into helping the Black Water Sister, a resentful Chinese goddess, just as the US-born Malaysian Chinese Jess moves with her parents to their native Penang island in northwestern Malaysia. The fact that Jess is jobless, and that they are all living off the generosity of relatives she barely knows, does not make adapting to the new and more conservative Asian society any easier – especially when she has yet to come out as a lesbian.