It took more than a decade for Ipoh-born Malaysian Indian author Preeta Samarasan to write her second novel, “Tale of the Dreamer’s Son” — a story that, although still well-grounded in Malaysian history and its complex multi-ethnic background, is quite different from Samarasan’s debut novel “Evening is the Whole Day” (2008).

Her first novel told the story of the well-off Rajasekharan, a three-generational Malaysian Indian family living in Ipoh, and their closely guarded secrets. When their servant is banished for “unnamed crimes”, the book moves back and forward in time to answer the many questions that haunt the family. “Evening is the Whole Day” was one of the few contemporary novels to describe the lives of Malaysian Tamil Indians, who “are 7% of the population, and were an even larger percentage when I was growing up,” Samarasan told Eksentrika.

When I ask why it took her so long to write a new novel, Samarasan shrugs it off with a laugh and by saying that maybe, it’s because she writes very slowly — and is “very lazy”. “I don’t know. I think people are hoping for an interesting story when they ask this question, but there isn’t one,” she said. Truth be told, “Tale of the Dreamer’s Son” has been in the can for four years and failed to sell in the traditional publishing industry for that long — possibly because of its very specific Malaysian theme.

Ultimately released in October 2022, her new novel “Tale of the Dreamer’s Son” is published by World Editions, a prestigious independent literary house launched in 2013 by Dutch publisher Eric Visser. Written in her uniquely vigorous and realistic prose, Samarasan’s new book also blends the past and the present, and defies categories and genre stereotypes — even though it could be considered literary fiction, because it touches on some of Malaysia’s most salient historical events. But “Tale of the Dreamer’s Son” is certainly a more experimental, and vividly experiential, piece of work.

The book’s blurb mentions the events of 13 May 1969, but the inter-ethnic riots that shook Malaysia are only a mere point of departure for a story that spans few decades. “Operation Lalang is actually far more central to the plot/protagonist’s life than May 13th,” explains Samarasan. “That said, I think May 13th is still central to Malaysia’s political landscape because we are still living the reality that was constructed as a response to that tragedy: our language policies and our economic policies, for a start, are the direct result of May 13th. I would also argue that May 13th also made Mahathir Mohamad’s half-century-long political career possible, and more broadly speaking, gave UMNO/Malay chauvinism the power it continues to command today”.

“Tale of the Dreamer’s Son” is narrated in short chapters that almost read like a stream of consciousness and carry different titles and time stamps to help readers navigate what is often times a jarring juxtaposition of events from the past (early 1970s Malaysia) and the present (the year 2023). The narration bursts with many interesting characters, both adults and children, among which is mixed-race Reza, who is only six years old in the scenes set in 1975. In that year, his Malay mother Salmah brought him from capital Kuala Lumpur to a lonesome hill in the exotic and lush Cameron Highlands, where a formerly abandoned house has been transformed into the Muhibbah Centre for World Peace.

This is where Cyril Dragon, a man who comes across as half hippie and half spiritual cult leader, lives with his group of supporters. The commune experiments with life at the margins of normal society, eschewing concepts of race, and living together in ways that do not fit the “normality” box of 1970s Malaysia. But Salmah’s arrival also brings unwanted change into the colony’s pre-existing balance. Soon enough, she will complicate things by starting a relationship with Cyril Dragon himself, and transforming the purity of the spiritual leader into nothing else than a regular man.

“[The Muhibbah Centre for World Peace] started with a thought experiment — what if someone had tried to respond to May 13th in this productive way? — and I had to follow that experiment along the path I thought it would have inevitably taken in Malaysia,” said Samarasan.

Even though “Tale of the Dreamer’s Son” does not primarily focuses on Malaysia’s ethnic issues, the actions and dialog of Samarasan’s characters resonate with the stereotypes and divisions that have made the country’s ethnic puzzle the jumble that it is. Spread across the decades that span the book’s storyline, they become the underlying ghosts that haunt Malaysian society, and make “Tale of the Dreamer’s Son” an unflinchingly realistic battleground for the great Malaysian ethnic divide.

“I write about race and identity because I care about the people and communities I’ve left behind, even though I live in Europe,” says Samarasan. “I think that diasporas do tend to see things differently from people who still live in the homeland, but I don’t think either of these perspectives is inherently better. Each has its pros and cons. What I do think being away gives me is the ability to talk about what I see with relatively little risk/fear; I’m aware that this is a privilege. Those back home may often see what I see too; they just don’t talk about it”.

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All images sourced from Preeta Samarasan’s Facebook Page.