Malayland

Dina Zaman has spent her life writing about identity, race and religion. During the pandemic, she found herself thinking about Malaysians who expressed their disempowerment and sense of displacement from their own country. Where did all these feelings come from? How did we get here?

Nearly two decades after the publication of I Am Muslim, Zaman returns with Malayland, to explore what it means to be Malay and Muslim in the 21st century. Part memoir and part observation, this book draws on her lifelong fascination with identity as a third-culture kid, who has seen the growth of postcolonial Malaysia ebb and flow for decades.

Malayland aims to spark debate among readers on the meaning of identity, how class and rural-urban migration play a role in the ethnic chasm, and the many faces Malays and Malaysia use in different contexts.