Short stories
Spilled Rice
Nasinya Tumpah
Fatimah Busu · 1972
Synopsis
Her spilled rice: in a poor family in a village of Kelantan, the eldest child keeps the house and looks after her three younger siblings while the parents leave early to work at the market or in the orchard. One morning, they leave earlier than usual, and the little ones' meal falls to the girl. The story follows that day from a child's point of view.
Context
The story appeared in 1972, at the start of a decade in which the author made her mark in Malay letters. Malaysian television has made a television film from it. In 2024, Pauline Fan translated it into English, in a selection of ten stories ranging from the sixties to the nineties published in Singapore by Penguin; in her introduction, the translator sees an invisible poison spoiling both food and innocence in it.
Who it is for
A brief short story in Malay, which can be read in English since 2024; it does not exist in French.
Prizes and reception
Malaysian Literature Prize in the year of its publication; one of the best-known texts by its author.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.