Orlando Chronicles

Bücher

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It is the swinging 60s in seedy Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, in recently renamed South East Asian country of Malaysia. Nightclub singer Ah Lan can make the whole room stand up, in more ways than one. Her musical coach Sammi is looking for love from a GI on R&R, from the war in Vietnam. Elderly neighbours the Tans are trying to fix her up with Affendi, and he does not really bartend at a club. While Ah Lan puzzles over the subtle changes happening to her body, her dressmaker Mrs Chan invokes the spirits. All these people brought together in an explosive ending witness Ah Lan becoming Ah Lan Toh. 200 years later continues the story of Ah Lan. She has now completely transitioned into a full blown man. He is more than merely unusual in his gender transformation. He has managed to outlive all the characters in the last book-by more than a hundred years. He is a very very old gentleman these days. Having lived for over a hundred years, he has come to accept his longevity. But lately he has noticed once again the beginnings to another set of subtle changes about to happen. Now officially named Orlando Toh, he had married and had children. They in turn married and had their own children. Living as he is now for up to a hundred years and more, he rues watching loved ones come and go. Now, still living in ultra modernized Chow Kit in vastly developed Malaysia, he mostly contends himself with a quiet life, living under the same roof as his surviving great great granddaughter. And she is now herself eighty years old, with her own grown and married children, and in the course of things, she has her own grandchildren, even a young son. This old woman will be planning his great great grandfather's ultimate birthday. And in the end what will happen to Orlando?