The Witch Doctor's Daughter

Longlisted for the 2021 Epigram Books Fiction Prize Safiyya loves her charlatan parents, but after years of watching the heartbroken and grieving come to them for fake and futile spiritual aid, she has had enough. So she leaves the Water Village to stay with her mother's people at the longhouse in the jungle, where she learns traditional medicine, meets an enigmatic linguist and finds herself caring for an orphaned newborn. Along the way, Safiyya must discover what she truly wants from life. My mother has had a nasi pusu stall in the Kianggeh market on the Brunei River for as long as I can remember—since I was in primary school, at least.