We can add another one to the list.

A worthy win

A Malaysian author has made the country proud by winning a Southeast Asian book prize.

Karina Robles Bahrin, the author of ‘The Accidental Malay’, beat out three other finalists to be crowned the winner of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2022, Malay Mail reported.

The 52-year-old's novel beat the works by Ng Ziqin, Nisha Mehraj and Tan Lip Hong for first place, hence winning SGD25,000 (RM77,777.50) in prize money.

To make it even more memorable, 'The Accidental Malay' was her first attempt at writing a novel.

Karina revealed that she wasn't expecting to win the award, but she was thrilled nonetheless.

“I’d like to firstly congratulate all the other shortlisted finalists. I think their books sound fantastic and I’m really looking forward to reading them. And to Epigram, a big thank you to them for continuing to push on and still have this award available to South-east Asian writers despite challenges of the current times.

“Last but not least of course, thank you to the judges for selecting my story,” she said during a virtual ceremony after the event.

Karina became the second Malaysian to win the award, after Joshua Kam won the prize back in 2020 with his novel 'How The Man In Green Saved Pahang, And Possibly The World'.

'The Accidental Malay' follows the story of Jasmine Leong, a hardworking woman who has her eyes set on becoming the CEO of a bak kua company owned by the wealthy Leong family.

However, her dream hit a snag when she found out that she's actually Malay.

Karina's novel and those of the three other finalists will be published in the second half of this year.