The Mutes in the Sun is a novella by one of Malaysia’s most beloved authors, Lee Kok Liang. Like the other works in Kok Liang’s oeuvre, the book focuses on interpersonal relationships: between father and son, between peers and between lovers. Mysterious in nature, the tales within allude to the ultimate unknowability of the forces at work in our lives. Beautifully written, Kok Liang accurately depicts one particular facet of the Southeast Asian cultural zeitgeist.
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Editorial Reviews
“In this novella, Lee Kok Liang expresses compassion for those who are too timid to be fully human and for outcasts who dare to be different.” Asiaweek
“Lee Kok Liang brings together the bizarre, the down-to-earth and the repulsive in a terrifying indictment on a corrupt society but through the profound beauty of art.” Southeast Asian Review of English
About the Author
Born in Alor Star, Kedah, Lee Kok Liang was educated in Chinese and English schools before attending the University of Melbourne. He left for England in 1952 to study law at Lincoln’s Inn. After his return to Malaya in 1954, he became a lawyer, politician and social activist. His story Return to Malaya was published in Encounter (1954). His oeuvre also includes a novel entitled Flowers in the Sky (1981) and Death is a Ceremony and Other Stories (1992).
