Shadow Play: Ten Tales from the In-between is a collection of fantastical and interconnected stories written by Asian-American author, Sarina Dahlan.
At first glance the characters may appear unrelated: A girl living with a silent grandmother in World War II-era Bangkok, a septuagenarian writing his memoir in upstate New York, a kampong witch doctor, the residents of a rundown hotel in the Tenderloin district, lost souls in Central Park. Yet, they are all connected by a karmic web across time.
By turns unexpected, funny, heartbreaking, and horrifying, this debut collection is an excursion into the strange and the magical hidden in the mundane. A fusion of the realistic and the supernatural that explores the concept of self by those stuck in-between.
SHADOW PLAY
A thirteen-year-old girl's anti-coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of WWII Bangkok.
Bangkok, Thailand, 1942
GLIMMER GLASS
A retired war journalist struggles to write a memoir.
Cooperstown, U.S.A., 2001
THE WITCH DOCTOR
A fifteen-year-old girl finds hope through a neighborhood healer during a great flood.
Bangkok, Thailand, 1942
CALL ME BLUE
A young woman from a small California desert town tells a story about her magical grandmother.
California Desert, U.S.A., 1994
LOVE ME, TENDER
Residents of a rundown hotel in the Tenderloin District search for a beloved fortune teller who has mysteriously gone missing.
San Francisco, U.S.A., 1998
GHOST MOON
A woman employs an unorthodox method to find an anchor in the aftermath of loss.
New York City, U.S.A., 2018
DUST BOUND
A man's path to self-discovery through a mysterious handwriting in an old book.
Bangkok, Thailand, 2017
THE WOMAN IN THE GARDEN
A photographer attempts to prove the existence of a woman no one believes is real.
San Diego, U.S.A., 2011
THE BENCH
A bizarre and unexpected gathering of lost souls in Central Park.
New York City, U.S.A., 2026
*Silver Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future, 3rd Quarter 2018
JASMINE WATER
Where it all began.
Bangkok, Siam, 1904