Kathryn Ma

Jan 16, 2024 | dublinliteraryaward.ie | Kathryn Ma

Eighteen-year-old Shelley, born into a much-despised branch of the Zheng family in Yunnan Province, heads to San Francisco to claim his destiny, confident that any hurdles will be easily overcome. Shelley is dismayed to find that his “rich uncle” is his unemployed second cousin and that the guest room he’d envisioned is but a scratchy sofa. Even worse, the loving family he hoped would embrace him is in shambles, shattered by a senseless tragedy that has cleaved the family in two.

Nov 13, 2023 | nytimes.com | Kathryn Ma |Celina Baljeet Basra |Astra House

HAPPY, by Celina Baljeet BasraA friend recently told me he’d read an article in this paper describing the money to be made supplying migrants in their journey from South America to the United States. “Made me realize I don’t have any real understanding of the immigration situation,” my friend said. Ain’t it the truth?

Oct 17, 2023 | datebook.sfchronicle.com | Tan Twan Eng |Kathryn Ma

“The House of Doors” by Tan Twan Eng. Photo: Bloomsbury PublishingTwo famous men walk the pages of Tan Twan Eng’s novel, long-listed for the 2023 Booker Prize: the celebrated British author W. Somerset Maugham and Dr. Sun Yat-sen, often called “the Father of the Nation” of the Republic of China. But it’s two women — one stunted by marriage and the other on trial for the murder of her lover — who bring “The House of Doors” to life. Eng, born in Malaysia, based this intricate novel on actual events.