Shadow Play

Shadow Play: Ten Tales from the In-between is a collection of fantastical and interconnected stories written by Sarina Dahlan.

At first glance the characters may appear unrelated: A girl living with a silent grandmother in World War II-era Bangkok, a septuagenarian writing his memoir in upstate New York, a kampong witch doctor, the residents of a rundown hotel in the Tenderloin district, lost souls in Central Park. Yet, they are all connected by a karmic web across time.

By turns unexpected, funny, heartbreaking, and horrifying, this debut collection is an excursion into the strange and the magical hidden in the mundane. A fusion of the realistic and the supernatural that explores the concept of self by those stuck in-between.

www.sarinadahlan.com



SHADOW PLAY

A thirteen-year-old girl's anti-coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of WWII Bangkok.

Bangkok, Thailand, 1942



GLIMMER GLASS

A retired war journalist struggles to write a memoir.

Cooperstown, U.S.A., 2001



THE WITCH DOCTOR

A fifteen-year-old girl finds hope through a neighborhood healer during a great flood.

Bangkok, Thailand, 1942



CALL ME BLUE

A young woman from a small California desert town tells a story about her magical grandmother.

California Desert, U.S.A., 1994



LOVE ME, TENDER

Residents of a rundown hotel in the Tenderloin District search for a beloved fortune teller who has mysteriously gone missing.

San Francisco, U.S.A., 1998



GHOST MOON

A woman employs an unorthodox method to find an anchor in the aftermath of loss.

New York City, U.S.A., 2018



DUST BOUND

A man's path to self-discovery through a mysterious handwriting in an old book.

Bangkok, Thailand, 2017



THE WOMAN IN THE GARDEN

A photographer attempts to prove the existence of a woman no one believes is real.

San Diego, U.S.A., 2011



THE BENCH

A bizarre and unexpected gathering of lost souls in Central Park.

New York City, U.S.A., 2026

*Silver Honorable Mention, Writers of the Future, 3rd Quarter 2018



JASMINE WATER

Where it all began.

Bangkok, Siam, 1904