Winner of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize
‘Slick, sharp . . . a joy to read’ - Tash Aw, author of Five Star Billionaire
Jasmine Leong is the heiress apparent to Phoenix, her family’s billion-ringgit company known especially for its pork snacks. When her grandmother, the great Madame Leong, unexpectedly passes away, Jasmine discovers she is actually a Malay Muslim and this newfound identity threatens to upend her life and ambitions.
Finding herself at the centre of a political controversy, and caught between two men who love her, Karina Robles Bahrin's The Accidental Malay examines the human cost of a country’s racial policies and paints a portrait of a woman unwilling to accept the fate history has designated for her.
'A novel both generous and scathing; both honest and nuanced; both grounded in human emotion and engaged with history and politics' - Preeta Samarasan, author of Evening Is the Whole Day