Ep80: Vanessa Chan on the Japanese occupation of Malaysia, big families & characters with agency

On this week’s episode, I’m talking to Vanessa Chan about her debut novel, an absolutely mesmerising story set across two timelines: 1930s and 1945 in Malaya – what Malaysia was called before independence. It is a story with four different perspectives, following the decision made by one woman to become a spy for Japan, and the dreadful consequences that befall her family and country, afterwards. Vanessa Chan is the Malaysian author of The Storm We Made, a national bestseller, Go...