Cold East

Twenty-something author and minor media influencer Stasys Saltoka – or Stanley Colder to his adoring Insta followers – has hit an existential wall. Abandoning his clichéd and stifling New York city life, he buys a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia in search of life-changing experiences.

A chance meeting with an enigmatic Russian leads Stasys to a documentary project – the murder of a mysterious Mongolian model that implicates a prime minister and his jewel-hoarding wife. Unravelling the truth takes Stasys deeper through the murky swamp of extreme corruption, death, Islamophobia and media manipulation.

Will he ever figure out the meaning of life or find a decent espresso?

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Gabija Grusaite (Author)

Award-winning author Gabija Grusaite is a graduate of Anthropology & Media from the Goldsmiths’ College, UK. She lived in Malaysia for seven years where
she cofounded the Hin Bus Depot - an independent, contemporary art space. She currently lives in Vilnius, Lithuania with her two Malaysian dogs - Gorgeous and
Hazelnut. Her second novel Cold East is the winner of the Penang Book Prize 2018 and was shortlisted for the EU Prize for Literature 2019. The Mycelium Dream is her third novel.