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Early Mornings At The Laksa Cafe by Malaysian author Janet Tay transplants cosy fiction to S-E Asia
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Malaysian author Janet Tay’s debut novel, Early Mornings At The Laksa Cafe, adheres to the time-location formula of some of the best-selling healing fiction in recent years.
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF JANET TAY, HARVILL
SINGAPORE – The title of Malaysian author Janet Tay’s debut novel, Early Mornings At The Laksa Cafe, has a familiar ring to it, adhering to the time-location formula of some of the best-selling healing fiction in recent years.
See Satoshi Yagisawa’s Days At The Morisaki Bookshop (2010) or Yeon Somin’s The Healing Season Of Pottery (2023). Or Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s Before The Coffee Gets Cold (2015), which, despite its deviation from the method, has no problems evoking a pocket of time in the comforting cafe.
