Novel
Seroja Masih di Kolam
Not translated into English
Adibah Amin · 1972
Synopsis
The lotus is still in the pond: Nur Diana, a young woman educated in the English school, knows little of the culture of her own people and holds Malay literature in low esteem. Her cousin Ridhwan, whom she meets again on campus, brings her face to face with that culture. Around them, the novel paints Malay society of the sixties, divided between those who imitate the West and those who remain attached to tradition.
Context
The sources date its publication to 1968 or 1972, and the book counts among the notable Malay novels of a period when the genre was gaining in technique and widening its subjects. One woman reader finds in it a fresh narrative, which speaks above all to those who knew student life on the Singapore campus. The book was translated into Japanese in 1986, in a series devoted to women writers of Asia, and it is the subject of study notes for the Malay paper of the International Baccalaureate.
Who it is for
A novel in Malay, easy to approach, about the educated youth of its time; it exists neither in French nor in English.
Prizes and reception
Retained by historians of the genre among the great Malay novels of its time; a Japanese version appeared in 1986.
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