Silverfish

I went crazy last Friday at Kinokuniya and left with these 5 books:
Arvind Adiga - The White Tiger
David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains Of The Day
Jonathan Safran Foer - Everything Is Illuminated
J.M. Coetzee - Slow Man

I am now reading the first book from the list, and so far it hasn't disappointed me. It's a controversial Man Booker Prize winner, so it should be a good read. Too bad I can't find Ian McEwan's Saturday.

On a related note, I have been quite disappointed with local writers so far. I've read highly acclaimed local books like Dina Zaman's I Am Muslim, Kam Raslan's Confessions Of An Old Boy and Andrew Leci's Once Removed, and truthfully none of them lived up to my expectations. Dina Zaman wrote well enough, but her books feels more like a blog than a book. I like only one anecdote from the whole book. Kam Raslan is a bit better, I thoroughly enjoyed most of it though the last third was a big letdown for me. Andrew leci, what can I say. He tried too hard to be funny, but it didn't work. He should just stick to writing columns on football instead.

But there are local writers that I truly love. Ever heard of Tamar Jalis? In case you were born after the 80s, you won't know about Variasari and the Siri Bercakap Dengan Jin written by the aforementioned. I have been looking for reprints for ages but haven't found it yet. The other day as I was snooping around for more info about it, I found my lifesaver. Someone apparently decided to scan and put up the soft copy version of the series online! If you are like me, a fan of the series, go ahead and pay this page a visit and get the details how to read those stories again.

Then there's also S. Othman Kelantan who wrote mostly about the Kelantanese rural life in books such as Juara (the basis for the movie Jogho by U-Wei, my favourite director)

I'm also looking for Hashim Yop's Korban Keretapi Maut, which basically tells the story of a young man forced to work on the Death Railway during the Japanese occupation of Malaya.

Tell me, which current local writer I should read next. There's too much hype flying around and seemingly any blogger can write a book these days. I want quality, a little help anyone?