Vanessa Chan's debut novel - The Storm We Made - was fought over in a seven way publishing auction! It's now out in the world, and it's our first Radio 2 Book Club choice of 2024. Zoe chats to Vanessa, from her apartment in Brooklyn, about the inspirations for the story, her Malaysian upbringing and her writing routine. Here's a little bit more about the book: Her decision changed history. Now her family must survive it.British Malaya, 1930s: Discontented housewife Cecily is seduced by Japanese general Fujiwara and the glorious future he is promising for ‘independent’ Malaya, free from British colonialism. As she becomes further embedded as his own personal spy, she unwittingly alters the fate of her country by welcoming in a punishing form of dictatorship under the Japanese in WWII.Japanese-occupied Malaya, 1945: Cecily and her family are barely surviving. Her children, Jujube, Abel and Jasmin, are surrounded by threat, and look to their mother to keep them safe. But she can’t tell them about the part she played in the war – and she doesn’t know how to protect them.Can Cecily face up to her past to save her children? Or is it already too late… ?

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.