Laurie Hashim

Laurie Hashim lives with her husband, three boys, and two dogs in Santa Barbara, California. Ms Hashim graduated many years ago with a degree in economics from Tufts University. She has worked in management consulting in Boston, advertising in Kuala Lumpur, and software in San Francisco. But these days when she is not writing or doing research for writing, she is hiking, biking, and travelling. The island city of Penang has captivated the author ever since she married into a sprawling, eccentric family from this metropolitan mosaic 25 years ago. She was particularly fascinated by the stories she heard about Penang during the transformative war years. She listened intently when the “aunties” collected in the kitchen and shared memories of their youth. She noted the sighs of a grandmother who still spoke with regret about leaving school for an arranged marriage, the defiant description of a wife chasing her husband with a broomstick when he returned from a business strip with a new bride, and the tremor in their voices when they remembered the neighbors they hid during the occupation despite the severed heads of “traitors” displayed on the fence post. These past hardships did not dampen their enthusiastic embrace of life, leading Ms. Hashim to wonder about the sacrifices we make to fit our dreams into our reality.