May 16, 6pm, Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway, Vancouver, free event (donations welcome) Come celebrate the launch of Pulse, the newest novel from celebrated author–and recent contributor of short fiction to Ricepaper’s 15.3 RepresentASIANS issue—Lydia Kwa. Set in both Toronto and Singapore, Pulse is the story of Natalie, who hears from her childhood friend and ex-lover Farridah, that Farridah’s son, Selim has committed suicide. Somehow Natalie’s own past is entangled in the reasons behind why Selim has taken his own life.
Now Toronto calls Pulse a “courageous piece of fiction” and recognizes Kwa as “a writer who gets better and better.”
A reading will be followed by a discussion of a variety of issues that come up in the novel including the “impact of colonialism, racism, and homophobia in Southeast Asia; the evolution of Japanese bondage from forms of torture; and the choices of the individual in responding to collective trauma.”