Complicated Lives by Malachi Edwin Vethamani

Malachi’s Complicated Lives offers a rich throve of uncommon Malaysian stories distinctive in their local, Tamil and sexual passions, stretching from childhood to intimations of mortality, each poem another glimpse of ‘Reality [that] is but a shade of illusion.’
- Shirley Geok-lin Lim, winner of Commonwealth Poetry Prize and American Book Awards; Research Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara

Malachi Edwin writes sharp and vivid poems that capture with longing and heartbreak vistas long gone--the old Brickfields of memory, the ghosts of a love that dares not speak its name. Set against a rapidly changing Malaysia, these poems chart the country's headlong rush to progress, as seen in kampongs vanishing and replaced with gleaming skyscrapers, as well as in relationships between people. Intimate, provocative, wild and beautiful, these poems are an important contribution to the house of Malaysian poetry in English.
- Danton Remoto, Research Fellow on Malaysian Literature, Asian Scholarship Foundation Professorial Lecturer, Ateneo de Manila University

Professor, poet, short story writer, Malachi Edwin is a familiar name in Malaysian literature, but his debut collection of poetry, Complicated Lives, is surely his most significant contribution to the tradition to date. What we encounter in the volume is poetry as memoir. Written in a simple, terse and delicate style, and confessional tone, the poems take us through a long, emotional journey into the speaker’s imagination and memory – sweet, bitter, warm, celebratory or agonising – and, true to the autobiographical style of poetry, ending with some reflections on death.
- Mohammad A. Quayum, Professor of English, International Islamic University Malaysia & Adjunct Professor of English and Creative Writing, Flinders University, Australia