Kampung Boy

This childhood memoir of a boy growing up in rural Malaysia in the 1950s and 1960s is non-fiction at its funniest. Beginning with his birth and the offerings given by his family in honour of his birth, "Kampung Boy" follows a boy named Mat through childhood misbehaviour, life on his father's rubber plantation and Muslim traditions and ceremonies, drawing out the humour and comedy in even the most ordinary situations. As Mat grows up however, the traditional way of life in his rural Malaysian village (or kampung) is steadily disappearing as copper mines, factory jobs and urban sprawl increasingly overtake the village's agricultural way of life. Even Mat himself leaves the kmapung at age fourteen to attend boarding school. Hilarious and affectionate, with graphically brilliant super expressive artwork, "Kampung Boy" opens a window into a world that has now almost disappeared.