WILDLIFE OF COAL ISLAND
A collection of eleven stories, all set on a fictional island located in present day Malaysia. The collection is in the vein of V.S. Naipaul's Miguel Street and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio where place and character define the trajectory of the stories. Coal Island is peopled with such characters: An aging Chinese opera singer and her pet monkey. A self-proclaimed psychic who sees kingfishers in the sky and is convinced that a tsunami is coming. A murderer who finds worldly wisdom in a wandering Malayan tapir. An ex-colonial plantation overseer, battling with the literal and lateral python of his past. An obese supermarket matriarch who talks to bats.