Another Synopsis on Rice, Fish, Squid and Lamb

L. Liz Johann, a broken soul, longs for her Valium one morning.  Liz has had a breakdown culminating in an attempted suicide that was luckily thwarted by Jay Arman, her husband.  Jay brings her breakfast and asks if she wants to talk about what happened the night before.  Calmly, she recounts to him the heady joys and devastating pain wrought by her first love, Adam Adnan in this bitter sweet tale of love lost and found.

Liz first stumbles upon Adam when she’s five in their hometown of Johor Bahru, Malaysia.  Their paths collide again one autumn when she’s sixteen, a prep student who’s sitting for SAT and applying to colleges.  Adam is a university junior.  Both are in California, USA on scholarship.  Despite her naïve and skeptical view on love, Liz falls madly for Adam.  Her weekends with Adam are narrated with a dose of SAT words she learns by heart. Summer comes and the couple return to their hometown.  On their flight home, the two devise code words such as rice, fish, squid and lamb to facilitate their conversation in public.   Malaysia’s conservative culture and constant harassment by Lila, Liz’s precocious kid sister who distrusts Adam don’t stop the lovebirds from their regular phone calls and occasional dates.  Their summer break culminates with Adam promising Liz she’ll be his fiancée before the season ends.  

Twenty one years on, Adam finds Liz through Facebook and tempts her to email him back by reminding her about what he owes her.  In their correspondence, Adam explains why he broke up with Liz at San Francisco Airport before she flew east to attend MIT post their summer break.  Devastated though she was, Liz gradually overcame the heartache.  She managed to almost erase Adam from memory and learned to love again.  She met Jay who promised her she’d get to see the world and both enjoyed travelling together.  The two got married and eventually settle in Singapore.  Adam meanwhile dropped out of school after the breakup.  Street wise, he managed to financially survive and after amassing enough money, completed his study.  Adam recounts he was successful career wise in USA and Canada.  Nonetheless his mother’s precarious health forced him to return home.  Fearing his mother’s days were numbered, he abided by her request.  She arranged for him, then a thirty something man, to marry a woman of her choice.  Adam admits to Liz it’s a loveless marriage but it results in two kids – reason enough for him to get up in the mornings for the rest of his life.  

After the email exchange, Adam and Liz meet in Kuala Lumpur.  The encounter unsettles Liz who finds herself falling for him all over again despite his physical changes.  Through their conversation, they discover poignant twists and coincidences in their lives apart.  Adam makes more promises again to Liz – this time to leave their respective unhappy or unsatisfying marriages and marry each other.  Before their next meeting, Liz reminisces about her travels in which she inadvertently remembered Adam and hinted of her unravelling marriage with Jay.  On a drive back from visiting his mother, Adam recalls events in his life when he’s reminded of Liz through the SAT words she taught him.  Days later, Adam writes another email to Liz. 

Will there ever be a chance for two people fated to deeply love each other to be together in this lifetime?  Pick up a copy of Rice, Fish, Squid and Lamb from Amazon / Barnes and Noble/ Nook / iBookstore.