A Fiery Flesh and Other Stories

by Putera, Ismim

• ISBN13: 9789815233810
• ISBN10: 9815233815
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2025-04-15
• Publisher: Penguin Books

Summary

THE HEAT OF BEING ALIVE; WARM BREATHS, HOT BLOOD, FLESH BURNING WITH DESIRE. DO WE FAN THE FLAMES OR EXTINGUISH THE FIRE? There is so much that goes into burning. Kindling, a spark, the flames, the ash, the smoke, the aftermath. The stories in this anthology recognize that burning is serious business. A man drowns in an emotional shower (the flames are doused) after encountering a merman who resembles his deceased childhood friend. An all-consuming passion (desire is so helplessly flammable) turns a man into a bat. A medical assistant narrates how the lost placenta of a premature infant triggers a chain of curses (the ash, the smoke, the aftermath). A love triangle between sisters leaves a mother with no choice but to replace her daughter as the bride (the burning down of everything). A potted plant enlightens a timid woman about a sassy way to escape from her control freak mother-in-law (this is how you make your way out of a fire). An arsonist uses a tangle of red string to draw her husband’ s fiery qi into herself (the vocabulary of love is a vocabulary of burning).

Author Biography

Ismim Putera is a poet and writer from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. His works can be found in many online journals and anthologies, including To Let the Light In: An Anthology of Life and Death, Instincts: Asian Speculative Poetry 2021, Colours of Tapestry 2: Stories from Asia, Unsaid: An Asian Anthology, and recently in The Big Book of Malaysian Horror Stories, and A Spoonful of Malaysian Magic.

Table of Contents

Preface vii The Pelamin 1 A Fiery Flesh 21 Seven Jars of Water 33 Of Salt and Silver 59 The Bat and the Bakawali 77 My Mother-in-Law’ s Tongue 97 And the Crocodiles Lurk Below 123 A Tangle of Red Strings 139 The Persian Blue Mascara 165 The Ferns 175 Kemunik 201 The Banana Hearts 219 Panggang-panggang 239 One-part Riddle, One-part Rune 253 Acknowledgements 277