A Man and His Wallet & Other Stories

Author: Tan Bok Hooi Publisher: LiveFree ISBN: 9789671433300

WITH a minimalist and almost zen-like approach, Tan’s words convey a heart-felt understanding of the various moments that make up our lives.

Through simple and direct prose, it conveys a sense of how one may ‘ touch’ and ‘ see’ the substance of these moments.

No wonder this book was chosen as one of the 50 best Malaysian titles for international rights in 2016-2017 at the most recent International Book Festival in Frankfurt.

The book is divided into three sections: section one addresses the issues within our immediate family while section two touches on other significant people who have entered our lives; and section three covers the wider world and environment which we live in.

It might share the same genre as Tuesdays with Morrie or The Last Lecture, but Tan’s book carries an Asian flavour in its perspectives of how one fits into the world.

It is never elaborate in its language and through this paucity of words, it attempts to capture the ‘truth’ within the moments and events of our day-to-day life.

In each short story, written almost like a haiku, and within the space of that which has been left unelaborated and unsaid, it produces a flavour that lives long after you have stopped reading it. – Chan Jin Hoe