Malayan Spy

London, 1952. Young man Hamid, adrift from his studies and from himself, uncertain of his future and that of Malaya, not yet a country. He wants to belong to something but is it to his Sultan, to a barely imagined nation or to the British Empire?

The answer, he believes, is to find a wife.

In the Great Smog, he meets Tom Pelham, an old friend from Malaya and son of a former British Resident, who invites Hamid to spend Christmas at his family estate. Excited, Hamid anticipates reuniting with his childhood crush, Clare Pelham, only to be met with another pleasant surprise: Clare’s two competitive friends, Hermione and Margaret.

Hamid finds them as exotic as they find him. Caught in the middle of the three women, Hamid does the unthinkable, loses Clare’s trust and is thrown out of the house. But all is not lost. Tom offers Hamid a route back to redemption and to Clare—if he spies for England.

Cold War Berlin, 1953. Hamid is sent to seduce an East German communist student leader. Abandoned in East Berlin when it is sealed off during a violent uprising (unknown today outside Germany), Hamid must save himself from Soviet tanks and rely on the unknown loyalties of a Soviet Colonel and especially on the wits of his mistress, loyal only to herself. Hamid must cross the final bridge to safety, to adulthood and to belonging to something, or to someone.

Kam Raslan (Author)

Kam Raslan is a Malaysian writer and broadcaster. Originally a filmmaker working in London, Los Angeles, Malaysia and Indonesia, he has written for many publications including The Economist, Mekong Review and he had a long-running column in The Edge Malaysia. He hosts two shows on BFM Radio: A Bit of Culture and Just For Kicks. Kam Raslan is the author of Confessions of an Old Boy, a collection of short stories, the various adventures of Dato' Hamid from the 1940s to the 2000s. The book was first published in 2008 and has been re-issued in 2024.

Dimensions: 13.5 x 2.02 x 21.6 cm