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In this collection of fifty-three sonnets, The Hidden Papayrus of Hen-Taui, we have Wong Phui Nam at the height as pre-eminent Malaysian poet exploring false expectations about God and the after-life Reading these sonnets is a reminder of a spiritual journey we too might makes 'we fear the end of our days' and the gods we go after. The writing is crisp and the images he evokes heighten our reading experience. Totally absorbing, I was held entranced to finish it in a single reading. The Hidden Papyrus of Hen-Taui is Wong Phui Nam's most accessible and powerful poems of his oeuvre.

Malachi Edwin Vethamani, writer, poet and professor,

University Nottingham Malaysia

About the Author

Wong Phui Nam has long been a giant of Malaysian literature. His latest collection, The Hidden Papyrus of Hen-taui, confirms this status, investigating the divine mystery and dissolution of the flesh in an elegantly textured sonnet sequence that channels ancient Egypt while grappling with the timeless pleasures and paradoxes of human mortality. In his masterful hands, ‘a chrysalis of words from human voices begin to form and flicker slowly into awareness,’ singing by turns about darkness, love, and the redemptive power of language, even in the face of a devouring nothingness. Here is a poet at the height of his powers, summoning spirits from the floating world, startling us into epiphany.