The Hidden Papyrus Oh Hen-taui

Wong Phui Nam has long been a giant of Malaysian literature. His latest collection, The Hidden Papyrus of Hen-taui, confirms this status, investigating the divine mystery and dissolution of the flesh in an elegantly textured sonnet sequence that channels ancient Egypt while grappling with the timeless pleasures and paradoxes of human mortality. In his masterful hands, ‘a chrysalis of words from human voices begin to form and flicker slowly into awareness,’ singing by turns about darkness, love, and the redemptive power of language, even in the face of a devouring nothingness. Here is a poet at the height of his powers, summoning spirits from the floating world, startling us into epiphany.