Delicious Hunger

“Rarely does a work of Singapore literature manage to render the dense tropical music of the jungle–or as Chinese-language writer Hai Fan puts it, “the rainforest talking in its sleep”. The former Malayan Communist Party fighter’s short stories are intimate–though not naively sympathetic–sketches of the lives of the guerillas who fought in the rainforests in the last decades of the Cold War.”
—The Straits Times

“As a guerrilla fighter in the Malayan Communist Party’s 12th Regiment, Hai Fan has dedicated himself to weaving his thirteen years of military life into the fabric of grand history. Through his work, he not only brings vibrant colour to the grey areas of this historical period but also, with his documentary-style writing, significantly narrows the distance between readers and the past.”
—Hee Wai Siam, Associate Professor of Chinese, Nanyang Technological University

“Through eleven stories forged over thirteen years, readers can journey through verdant rainforests where characters move with purpose–some seen, some overlooked, some forgotten. While moments of gunfire and peril punctuate these brilliant tales, the collection's core lies in the everyday rhythms of jungle life: planting crops, hunting, crossing rivers, setting mines, storing provisions, and standing guard–military necessities that became the daily existence for which warriors like Hai Fan had risked everything.”
—Dr Tan Chee Lay, scholar, poet, artist

“At once poetic and visceral, haunting yet lyrical, Delicious Hunger immerses the reader in the sensory realities of jungle life: the sweetness of juice from woody vines, more refreshing than Coca-Cola; the tender gaze of a trapped mouse deer, so disarming it stays its captor’s hand; and the enchanting scent of wild mango stored in an earthenware jar, preserving not just fruit but fragile emotions. With its compelling narratives and historical depth, Delicious Hunger is essential reading for those interested in revolutionary movements, post-colonial resistance and the global Cold War.”
—Zhou Taomo, Associate Professor, the Department of Chinese Studies Dean’s Chair, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore Author of Migration in the Time of Revolution: China, Indonesia and the Cold War

Hai Fan is the pen name of Ang Tiam Huat, a Singaporean writer who entered the rainforest in 1976 as a soldier of the Malayan Communist Party and spent the next thirteen years carrying out guerrilla warfare near the Malaysia-Thai border. His publications include What the Rainforest Tells You, the essay collection The Tumultuous Hills and Jungles, the story collections Wild Pathways and Delicious Hunger, and the novel A Rear View of the Rainforest. He now lives in Singapore.

Jeremy Tiang is a Singaporean novelist and playwright, and the International Booker Prize-longlisted translator of over thirty books from Chinese, including novels by Yeng Pway Ngon, Yan Ge, Lo Yi-Chin, Liu Xinwu and Yu Yoyo. He was awarded the Singapore Literature Prize for his novel State of Emergency and for his translation of Zhang Yueran’s Cocoon, and he won an Obie Award for his play Salesman之死. He lives in New York City.