Books
Lovers and Strangers Revisited
In this collection of 17 stories, Robert Raymer portrays the traditional in modernity, the unexpected in relationships both familiar and strange, the recurring theme of race even as contemporary Malaysia finds ways to understand its multicultural milieu. In the title story, a selfish writer gets more than he bargained for when former lovers haunt him in more ways than one. In another story, a man's loneliness turns into obsession when he shares a taxi ride with a Malay woman. A Clark Gable lookalike is a barrister wannabe with a shocking secret and gossipy neighbours reveal more about themselves than the man who commits suicide. Elsewhere, expats cross the border to Had Yai to experience a good bargain in the Thai flesh trade before going home to their wives in America.
In this republished edition of Lovers and Strangers Revisited, Raymer's snapshots of scenes from various walks of life provide an insider-outsider view on love, family and culture, and urges a second look at ourselves in the mirror of self-awareness.
- Launch of Lovers and Strangers Revisited
(View the press release here) - Article: Inspiring Others to Write by Robert Raymer
(Download -- File format: PDF
| Size: 17kb) - Introduction to Lovers and Strangers. Revised!
(Download -- File format: PDF | Size: 113kb) - "Neighbors" story
(Download the entire story -- File format: PDF | Size: 45kb) - Online discussion - "Neighbors" story at Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA)
- Order this book direct from Robert
- Buy this book online from MPH
Silverfish New Writing 4,
The 26 short stories selected for Silverfish’s fourth anthology are international writers most of whom have some connection with Penang or Malaysia. The contexts and themes of the stories vary a great deal but each conveys with telling clarity something of the sadnesses, joys and complexities of real life today.
- Robert’s foreword
Download Robert’s foreword here
(File format: PDF | Size: 33kb) - Buy this book
25 Malaysian Short Stories: Best of Silverfish New Writing 2001-2005,
Released by Silverfish Books to commemorate the fifth year of the Silverfish New Writing series, and due to the numerous requests for an anthology of entirely Malaysian Short Stories.
- Robert Raymer’s story “Waiting for My Father to Crash” is featured in this book.
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Collateral Damage
The chillingly clinical phrase collateral damage was originally coined by the Pentagon during the first Gulf War. It was used to euphemistically refer to the deaths and maiming (to say nothing of destroyed livelihoods, disrupted family lives and lost hopes) of innocent civilians who got caught in the crossfire. It rendered those casualties invisible in official reports and television broadcasts, and effectively kept them off the public conscience.
- Robert Raymer’s story “Lester is Lester” is featured in this book.
- Buy this book
Silverfish New Writing 5,
This time round we feature 23 writers; twelve are from (ie live in) Malaysia. Eight writers (also by place of residence) are from Singapore including Robert Yeo (poet, playwright and writer), Michael Vatikiotis (former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review), Lim Thean Soo (posthumous) and Goh Sin Tub (posthumous).Of the others, two writers Jane Downing and Craig Cormick, are from Australia and Lawrence Gray is from Hong Kong.
- Robert Raymer’s story “Waiting for My Father to Crash” is featured in this book.
- Buy this book
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