About the Author
Marco Ferrarese was born near Milano, Italy, and has lived in Penang since 2009, from where he covers Malaysia, India and the larger Southeast Asian region for a number of international guidebooks and publications that include Lonely Planet, South China Morning Post, Nikkei Asia, the Guardian, BBC Travel, and Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia.
In the footsteps of fellow countryman and homonymous Marco Polo, in 2012 Marco hitchhiked from Singapore to Italy across Silk Road routes and the Middle East. His debut novel Nazi Goreng (2013) was a bestseller in Malaysia until it was banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015. Marco has also played guitar in Malaysian hardcore punk bands and written a book about it, Banana Punk Rawk Trails (2015), and earned a PhD in subcultural anthropology from Monash University Malaysia. In 2017, he published “The Travels of Marco Yolo”, a collection of some of his published travel articles.
He and his Malaysian photographer wife Kit Yeng still call Penang home, even though they are on the road reporting from elsewhere most of the time. Know more about him and his books at www.marcoferrarese.com and www.monkeyrockworld.com and https://web.facebook.com/ferraresewrites/
About the Residency
After 10 years of hectic magazine publishing, Marco has come to Rimbun Dahan to try to slow down and concentrate on jotting down the draft of a new novel. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it will be a cheeky suburban horror story that draws on folklore, stereotypes and contemporary urban life to point the finger and make fun of the ethnic squabbles that are part of life in Peninsular Malaysia.