The Last days of the Storyteller

A breeze blew from the northeast. The flames lengthened, almost leaving their wicks…the shadows danced on the walls…in the old stories, when danger loomed, there was always a God. His father’s words reverberated as Aziz once again shifted his gaze back to the gentle light of the friendly fireflies. The Last Days of the Storyteller is the tale of Pak Hassan, the village story-teller who carefully preserves oral history–the traditions, old world values, all that a story-teller represents–eclipsed by a modernising world with which he tries to but cannot reconcile. This is Pak Hassan’s story until his dying day, told beautifully by Malaysian writer Anwar Ridhwan.