A curated list of new titles by authors from Singapore.
Advocates and activists in Singapore contribute to policy discussions and positive change through a combination of deft manoeuvres and patient politics. Yet civil society is often unacknowledged, their skill and labour instead frequently misunderstood, even earning them the label of “troublemakers” or “enemies of the state”.
This collection of essays and interviews is a candid reflection on the intentions, beliefs and strategies behind the practice of advocacy across a spectrum of causes. The contributors come from varying backgrounds and include academics, artists, lawyers, journalists, non-profit and advocacy organisations, student and community organisers. They share practical insights into their aims and community-building work, and the tactics they employ to overcome obstacles, shedding light on how to navigate a city-state with shifting socio-political fault lines and out-of-bound markers. With an introduction, “It is Time to Trim the Banyan Tree”, by Constance Singam, and a conclusion, “Their Struggle is Ours to Continue”, by Suraendher Kumarr. Many people suffer from depression but choose to suffer in silence; perhaps they are undiagnosed or fear the stigma of being labelled as “depressed”.
This book, written by healthcare professionals, presents tales of resilience, recovery and joy, but also tales of defeat and despair. While some stories describe and depict the act of taking one’s life, the intention is to reflect the reality that often, the story of depression cannot be told without addressing the idea of suicide. Indeed, studies have shown that depression is the leading cause of death by suicide worldwide. Suicide is a serious matter, and readers should likewise treat it as such. The nine stories in this book remind readers that you are not alone. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal ideation, please know that help is available through various helplines, as well as medical practitioners. Little Drops: Cherished Children of Singapore’s Past is a compilation of biographies based on historical fact about the pain of separation and the lure of love, and how these themes constantly collide.
These never-before-told stories chronicle how fourteen adoptees from the 1930s to the early 1970s in Singapore found a forever home when their own biological parents could not raise them. These stories recount the plight of families of that era; the strength of friendships and informal social networks; Singapore’s migrant heritage; how lives were thrown into turmoil during the Japanese Occupation; and the struggles individuals had borne during that period leading up to Singapore’s independence. Unfolding in these stories are the recurrent subthemes of poverty, superstition, how girl children were valued amongst the Chinese, how a family illness or death was culturally construed, and the magnanimous spirit of families taking in these abandoned children. What is most striking about many of these children is that they were sometimes not legally given away, seeming odd since children could be passed around so easily. And yet these children would almost always end up in safe, loving and caring homes of another culture. Grappling with who they are in terms of their ethnic identity is very much a common experience amongst all these adoptees. But rather than struggling between two cultural worlds, these adoptees almost always have a firm sense of longing and belonging to their families of adoption instead of their families of origin. About the author: Born and bred in Singapore, Theresa W. Devasahayam is a family and gender anthropologist. At a young age, her interest in women’ s issues was ignited when she discovered her mother’ s story of adoption. Lucky Lee has everything—wealth, charm, money, good looks—and does very, very little with it. He’s content. He’s happy. He takes for granted that life is good and always will be. But then his sister, the go-getting, successful, famous TV chef Pearl Lee, dies, horribly, and suddenly. Lucky is devastated. As he struggles to live without the big sister who’s always been the dominant, often relentless force in his life, the inconceivable happens--her cat begins to talk to him. It wants to know where Pearl is. It questions his eating habits, his outfit choices, his life. It hogs the TV. It tells him stories. Now grief-stricken Lucky has a major problem: he may very well be mad.
This book contains Yip Yew Chong’s gift to Singapore, the epic 60m-long, 27-canvas painting of our island home in its bygone days.
Many of these scenes of the 1970s and 1980s are no more, but come alive once again in these pages, each spread depicting an area with their iconic buildings and way of life. Look carefully and see soldiers carrying concertina wire, Ah Mei and Ah Shui from The Awakening, the Jurong Bird Park waterfall, a kacang putih man, snake charmers, mahjong players, the National Theatre, break dancers and many, many more nostalgic details. And, yes, there is a Sikh gentleman riding his bicycle through many of the scenes. "A common trait of all my art works is that they are intricately detailed and tell stories, especially of my childhood memories, a bygone era or lost place; and at times, mixed with present day real scenes in a whimsical manner. I hope the artworks will evoke in the audi- ence a sense of warmth in their hearts and fond personal nostalgia; and they in turn, will be inspired to tell their own stories. By the way, that’s me on the book cover – chillaxing on a rooftop, enjoying a panoramic view of our Singapore.” Yip Yew Chong A unique voyage across Singapore’s past through seafood.
From familiar seafood favourites such as prawn and mackerel, to unusual fares such as pufferfish, Lala-land: Singapore’s Seafood Heritage is a fascinating exploration of Singapore’s marine environment and its remarkable relation to society. Learn about the history of quintessential Singaporean dishes and their impact on ecology, economy and culture. Includes over twenty recipes for beloved dishes such as Char Kway Teow, Laksa and many more. About the author: Anthony D. Medrano is the NUS Presidential Young Professor of Environmental Studies at Yale-NUS College. He also holds appointments in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore and the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum. His teaching and scholarship explore the intersections of food, culture, heritage and biodiversity in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Nine Yard Sarees is a multigenerational portrait of a fictional Tamil Brahmin family. Comprising eleven interlinked stories, this short story cycle traces the lives of nine women from 1950 all the way to 2019, shedding light on the community and its evolution through the decades.
As the stories take us from India to Singapore, Australia and even America, we follow the experiences of the women in the family: Raji the matriarch who lives in seclusion at an ashram; her daughter Padma who struggles to raise her family the traditional way; Padma’s daughter Keerthana who is about to be married and don the nine yard saree, a symbol of womanhood. Tender, dynamic and full of heart, this cycle is a resonant portrayal of female solidarity and the complexities of the diasporic experience in contemporary Singapore. Note from the publisher: The following stories contain some references to sensitive topics which may warrant content notices: Agni’s Trials—sexual harrassment The Perfect Shot—sexual assault Nine Yard Sarees—racism; fat phobic language Loose Threads—self-harm; pregnancy loss In Her Graveyard, She Bloomed—homophobic language; pregnancy loss Before the Rooster Calls—domestic abuse While the content of these stories is fictional, these topics reflect real issues. We recognise that the ways in which readers might respond to and deal with these issues may vary, as our relationships to these topics are unique. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or not in the right headspace to experience the stories, do put the book down and talk to someone about how you feel. A peek into the lives of Indian women learning to swim.
An eclectic group of Indian women living in a condominium in Singapore are determined to learn how to swim. To accomplish this, they must challenge cultural taboos, paddle against the tide of ingrained beliefs, tread carefully past family members, and dive deep into their pooled psyche to let go of things held dear. The Campbell Gardens Ladies’ Swimming Class goes beneath the surface to fathom what hinders these women from owning the water. It plunges into unexpected situations and encounters unusual role models who help uplift these women and make them believe that nothing is impossible. Singapore is small, a complex country full of contradictions, inconsistencies and idiosyncrasies. Often held up as a model nation, we sometimes forget that Singapore is seen differently by different people. With a decade of activism and journalism experience, Kirsten Han reveals various aspects of her home country that don’t follow what many of us know as the conventional ‘Singapore Story’. The Singapore I Recognise is Kirsten’s reckoning with civil society’s experiences of Singapore, perspectives that are often unheard, or fall through the cracks. Through researched interviews and heartfelt reflections, Kirsten tells us how parts of Singapore are already moving towards communal care, solidarity, empowerment and hope. This is a resonant portrayal of home in the island city-state.
Note from publisher: This book contains descriptions of physical violence, mentions of incarceration and themes related to the death penalty, as well as references to arrests and interrogation. We recognise that the ways in which readers might respond to and deal with these issues may vary, as our relationships to these topics are unique. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, personally affected or unable to engage with this content at present, feel free to put this book down and talk to someone about how you feel, or consult the resources printed at the back. In 1998, the Belitung, a ninth-century western Indian Ocean–style vessel, was discovered in Indonesian waters. Onboard was a full cargo load, likely intended for the Middle Eastern market, of over 60,000 Chinese Tang-dynasty ceramics, gold, and other precious objects. It is one of the most significant shipwreck discoveries of recent times, revealing the scale of ancient commercial endeavors and the centrality of the ocean within the Silk Road story.
But this shipwreck also has a modern tale to tell, of how nation-states appropriate the remnants of the past for their own purposes, and of the international debates about who owns—and is responsible for—shared heritage. The commercial salvage of objects from the Belitung, and their subsequent sale to Singapore, contravened the principles of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and prompted international criticism and debate. The resulting controversy continues to reverberate in academic and curatorial circles. Today, the finds are proudly displayed at Singapore's Asian Civilisations Museum as the Tang Shipwreck Collection. But major museums have refused to host international traveling exhibitions of the collection, and some Western archaeologists maintain the objects should be thrown back in the sea rather than ever go on display. Shipwrecks are anchored in the public imagination, their stories of treasure and tragedy told in museums, cinema, and song. At the same time, they are sites of scholarly inquiry, a means by which maritime archaeologists interrogate the past through its material remains. Every shipwreck is an accidental time capsule, replete with the sunken stories of those on board, of the personal and commercial objects that went down with the vessel, and of an unfinished journey. In this moving and thought-provoking reflection of underwater cultural heritage management, Natali Pearson reveals valuable new information about the Belitung salvage, obtained firsthand from the salvagers, and the intricacies in the many conflicts and relationships that developed. In tracing the Belitung’s lives and afterlives, this book shifts our thinking about shipwrecks beyond popular tropes of romance, pirates, and treasure, and toward an understanding of how the relationships between sites, objects, and people shape the stories we tell of the past in the present. A collection of nine spellbinding horror stories set in 1980s Singapore, around a single residential block, 174.
Ram has been ignored and dismissed his entire life. His parents patronise him, his older brother belittles him, his class pretends he doesn’t exist, and he is certain he will fail his impending A-Levels. The only good part of his life is Kass, a fellow outsider he has known since childhood. But when the bruises on Kass from her abusive father get worse and worse, Ram decides to don a mask and frighten him into changing his ways. After his scare tactic goes fatally wrong, the mask he wore calls out to him again to clean the city's filth.
Neo-noir thriller meets coming-of-age mystery, catskull explores the violence inherent in an unforgiving city and what it does to the people who inhabit it. It complicates questions of what is right, what is lawful, and who pays the price in the quest for justice. Note from publisher: This book contains references to topics such as physical violence, racially insensitive language, discrimination and abuse of migrant workers, and themes of sexual assault, sexual abuse and paedophilia. While the content of this novel is fictional, these topics reflect real issues. We recognise that the ways in which readers might respond to and deal with these issues may vary, as our relationships to these topics are unique. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or not in the right headspace to experience the story, do put the book down and talk to someone about how you feel, or consult resources printed at the back of the book. Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer.
Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be his fake date at a family wedding in the Hamptons. In Theo’s glittering world of pomp, privilege, and crazy rich drama, their romance is supposed to be just pretend . . . but Dylan finds himself falling for Theo. For real. Then Theo’s relatives reveal their true colors—but with the mooncake contest looming, Dylan can’t risk being sidetracked by rich-people problems. Can Dylan save his family’s business and follow his heart—or will he fail to do both? More LGBTQ titles in our PRIDE catalogue Ning has always heard tales of the night spirits that used to terrorize the little village where he lives. So, each night, he helps his parents light bright orange lanterns to frighten them away. Secretly, he wonders if they’re really as bad as everyone says – but is much too shy to ask anyone. But when Ning finds himself in the forest by night, he meets a creature who introduces him to the spirits’ secret world and he discovers that all is not as it seems…
A beautiful and magical story about confronting fears, confidence and a little boy who finds his voice. About the author: Adriena is an illustrator born and raised in Singapore. In 2020, she graduated with a BA in Illustration at Falmouth University, UK. She loves working with gouache and colour pencils as well as textured brushes on Photoshop. With a keen interest in narratives of all sorts, her work hopes to instil a sense of warmth and wonder. She is currently based back in sunny Singapore. Literary greats have long visited Singapore, fascinated by its culture and history. Explore the experiences of writers like Anton Chekhov, Rabindranath Tagore, Noël Coward, Isabella Bird, Pablo Neruda and Joseph Conrad, among others, and discover how Singapore remained a lasting part of their creative imagination.
She had, by any standard, an extraordinary life. Even discounting her incarceration by the Japanese military police for 193 days, during which she was subjected to extreme deprivation, physical abuse and torture, her life was no less than exciting: A childhood among the headhunters of Borneo, audiences with Princess Elizabeth and the Queen mother, a lifetime devoted to social work (during which she was pioneer principal of the School of the Blind), a seat on Singapore’s Legislative Council, a three-month stint as informal ambassador to the US and Canada... and these last three over and above her forty-year career as a teacher.
One might be led to think that her many and varied experiences had shaped her personality. On the contrary, in all these, it was her inimitable nature that shone through – the open-handed generosity, the buoyant optimism, the unassuming stoicism, the schoolgirl naivety, the workman-like perseverance, the unorthodox daring, the insatiable appetite for life. Her sterling character had brought her triumphant through the various vicissitudes and disappointments in the 96 years of her life, and marked the energetic spirit of Elizabeth Choy. We are invisible: we clean your houses, we look after your children, we know your secrets.
But now you know one of ours… Rules for being a maid: • No smoking • No boyfriends • No visitors • And most importantly: be invisible… Corazon, Angel and Donita have all come to Singapore to work for a living. The thing that unites them? Their labour must remain unseen. But when a friend is accused of murdering her employer, everything changes. The accused could be any of them; they all know the stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Each woman has secrets to keep, yet they must gather every ounce of bravery, fearlessness and complete audacity to clear the name of one of their own. After all, no-one knows the secrets of Singapore’s elite quite like the women who work in their homes… (384 pages / $30 ) In part, Singapore history is based on folk tales and legends from Asia, especially Southeast Asia. These 12 stories have been specially written for children and contain a glossary for difficult words to help literacy.
Leon F Comber born in London, worked for many years in the Special Branch of the Malayan Police from 1945, including the Malayan Emergency. A renowned publisher, editor and author he is currently Research Fellow (Adjunct), Monash Asia Institute, Monash University, Melbourne specialising in Asian studies ranging from history, security intelligence, political science, languages, literature, and publishing. A collection of stories about women loving women, and the relief and sadness that come with learning to love another and oneself.
Two women bond over a balloon cactus. A mother steals glances at her teenage daughter in the rear-view mirror. A bride misses her best friend on the eve of her wedding. An open support group for women who think too much. What is woman’s love? No Wonder, Women is an ode to women-to hearts that love fiercely and feel deeply. A glimpse into the lives of women who are trying to love without unloving themselves. Royalties in aid of Tan Tock Seng Hospital Community Fund which supports needy patients post-discharge
Hawker food bonds us. Hawker Centres are our places. They are ours to share. This book contains the best rojak of everything about hawkers past, present and future. It celebrates our hawker heritage, culture, and their UNESCO status through the eyes of hawkers, customers, and support systems. It spotlights, among many other things, our hawker centre habits, the ways we dabao, stories of hawkers (both old and new) who keep heritage dishes available – or have vanished, recipes of iconic dishes created in Singapore, the cool architecture of hawker centres, and the techniques that make hawker fare fabulous. All these are presented in a kaleidoscope of forms: Essays, photographs, poetry, flash fiction, comics, anecdotes, interviews, recipes and more with sections printed on special paper (look out for the double-gatefold of food porn). It’s a book to enjoy and share – like the hawker food we love. CONTRIBUTORS : Pamelia Chia ~ Alex Chua ~ Gwee Li Sui ~ Pamela Ho ~ Benjamin Kheng ~ Bryan Koh ~ Kow Zi Shan ~ Lai Chee Kien ~ Amanda Lee Koe ~ Annette Lee ~ Lynda Lee ~ Sonny Liew Isabelle Lim ~ Min Lim ~ Lim Tse Wei ~ Daryl Lim Wei Jie ~ Gilles Massot ~ Tess Moh ~ Violet Oon ~ Adrian Tan ~ Annette Tan ~ Simon Tay ~ Sylvia Tan ~ Judith Tan ~ Juliana Tan ~ Theresa Tan ~ Sylvia Toh Paik Choo ~ Tong Jia Han Chloe ~ Prasanthi Ram ~ Bryan van der Beek ~ Sim Ee Waun ~ Daryl Qilin Yam ~ Zulfadli Rashid (Size: 180 x 215 mm (P) Extent: 168 pp + 56 pages inserts + exposed spine binding) The Little Singapore Book is back, bigger and better! The new edition boasts gorgeous new illustrations, updated details and 90 full-colour pages, compared to the original 80. Expect more fascinating content of Singapore’s past, including amazing little-known stories, fun facts and activities. Just like the first edition, all content and illustrations in this new edition have been rigorously researched is sprinkled with engaging details that encourage exploration and conversation between young readers and grown-ups.
For those unfamiliar with this modern Singapore children’s classic, The Little Singapore Book is a fun-filled romp through Singapore’s history, packed in four chapters. It starts with a simplified history of Singapore from the 14th century through nation building and to the present day, then on to a whirlwind tour of the historical districts of Singapore. Flitting from past to present, it reveals the fascinating origins of neighbourhoods such as Chinatown and Little India, and how they have changed. For instance, did you know that Serangoon was once cattle farmland? Or that there was a real fort that once stood at Fort Road? This is followed by the final chapter on the way we live and what Singaporeans are all about, from the rich colourful language that we call ‘Singlish’ to our collective love for food. Sprinkled within are also activities for kids, from walking routes to games and quizzes, and sidebars of fun facts to pique children’s interest. Last year, The Little Singapore Book made it to the IFLA World Through Picture Books listing, and was exhibited in the national libraries of France and Japan, in Paris and Tokyo. The IFLA World Through Picture Books is an annotated list of recommended picture books compiled and endorsed by librarians from around the world. Criteria for making this list include being able to “stand the test of time” and demonstrating excellence in publishing.
The first volume of a brand new horror anthology series.
Ghost stories and tales of fright have a long verbal and written tradition in Singapore, and so Epigram Books is proud to present a new annual anthology series of terrifying local fiction. Featuring all the winners of the 2022 Storytel Epigram Horror Prize, Fright 1 celebrates all subsets of the horror genre, told with a Singaporean twist. The contributors include Meihan Boey, Dew M. Chaiyanara, Dave Chua, Jane Huang, Wen-yi Lee, Kelly Leow, Kimberly Lium, O Thiam Chin, Quek Shin Yi, Tan Lixin and Teo Kai Xiang. In 2012, author and editor Jason Erik Lundberg released Fish Eats Lion, the first anthology of literary speculative fiction to be published in Singapore, a groundbreaking work that opened the floodgates of acceptability for the genre in the island-nation, forever changing the landscape. Now, a decade later, he returns with Fish Eats Lion Redux, proving that SF is still alive and strong in the Lion City, and exploring Singapore from the distant past to the far future and many points between, as well as alternate versions along the multiverse.
With original stories by Meihan Boey, Ng Yi-Sheng, Nuraliah Norasid, Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, Suffian Hakim, Inez Tan, Cyril Wong, Daryl Qilin Yam and many more, this new collection shows beyond doubt that the realm of the imagination has never been so strange or so local. Brown is Redacted: Reflecting on Race in Singapore responds to, expands on and questions what we think we know about the lived experiences of minority-raced people in Singapore.
Inspired by Brown Is Haram, a performance-lecture on minority-race narratives staged at The Substation in 2021, this anthology reflects on how brownness is constructed, sidelined, but also celebrated in this nation-state. Through a combination of essays, academic works, poems, and stories by brown individuals, Brown is Redacted both attempts to and fails to create a singular brown experience. What this anthology does produce instead, is a moving and expressive work of solidarity and vulnerability. Contributors: Nabilah Said, Wint Shwe Sin, Laika Jumabhoy, Firdaus Sani, Mary Gomes, Madhu Vijayakumar, Saif Tamal, Laavanya Kathiravelu, Poorva Maithani, Sharvesh Leatchmanan, Mohar Khan, Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics (HOME), Durva Gautam Kamdar, Danielle Kaur, Prashant Somosundram, raihan, Paul M. Jerusalem, Jaryl George Solomon, Mish’aal Syed Nasar, Bhing Navato, Misha Ghosh, Ashwin Ram Saravanan, Roshrin D/O Abdul Azees, Hazirah Mohamad, Chand Chandramohan, Muhammad Ashyur, (Interviewed by Femi), nor, Zakir Hossain Khokan When the eccentric new education minister unveils a radical local exchange programme called INSTEP, two Secondary Three girls find themselves uprooted from their lives and transplanted into unfamiliar new surroundings. Rowena, a mediocre student at one of Singapore’s top girls’ schools, and Janice, the overachieving pride of a “heartland institution”, must each find a way to survive one term at the other’s school.
But just when they think they have it all figured out, a rash of misfortune threatens to shut INSTEP down. How will the girls fare? Will INSTEP survive past its pilot phase? Can the girls save the day? "Ziqin's daring novel explores questions that we've all wanted to ask about education and our own individual identities. Do we change with our environment, or do we shape it? Do we have any control over our successes or failures? Who are we really? This is a must-read for those who have wondered how their lives might have turned out, if they’d only gone to a different school." —Adrian Tan, author of The Teenage Textbook and The Teenage Workbook Photographer Steve Golden set off to find Singapore’s remaining heritage shops— family run businesses that are multi-generational and at least 35 years old. His search saw him exploring nearly every street in Singapore by foot, from the bustling center of Chinatown to the quiet heartland housing estates. After nearly a year of research, including interviews with local neighbors, shopkeepers, and heritage experts, he photographed over 70 shops and the families that have run them for generations.
This book contains 34 heritage shops, organized by geographic location, and spanning the many different trades that collectively contribute to the patchwork of Singapore’s cultural identify. The work also explores the themes of survival in the face of overwhelming and constant change, and why Singapore’s intangible cultural assets must be saved. This book has been designed to be portable for those who wish to explore the neighborhoods themselves and find the shops. About the author: Seizing an opportunity with Lonely Planet in 2010, Steve Golden left his day job to became a freelance photographer. Steve has been published widely in magazines, newspapers, online and on broadcast television. Steve is a director at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. In post-WWII Paris, a Cambodian student radical and French drifter play a dangerous game of lust and revenge.
It is 1949, and young Etienne Legast is in trouble. Estranged from his pious Catholic family, having fled a messy love affair with an older man at the end of the war, he returns home to Paris for a funeral, only to find himself quick drawn into a deadly debt to a neighborhood gangster and an unexpected romance with Samphan, an orphaned Cambodian student radical. Though the two young men come from different worlds, they soon develop a bond that helps them transcend their respective tragedies - until revolutionary political intrigues and the Parisian underworld threaten to pull them under once more. ~ A professional historian and former journalist, Justin Tyler Clark lives with his family in Singapore. His personal and historical essays have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. The Zero Season is his first novel. The role of comfort women in history remains a topic of importance — and emotion — around the world. Most scholarship concentrates on Korean comfort women, with less on their counterparts in Japan, China, Taiwan and even less on Southeast Asia. It is well-known that an elaborate series of comfort stations, or comfort houses, were organised by the Japanese administration across Singapore during the Occupation from 1942 to 1945. And historians have recorded eyewitness accounts from Korean comfort women who served here, and from managers of Singapore comfort stations.
So why did no local former comfort women come forward and tell their stories when others across Asia began to do publicly in the 1990s? To understand this silence, the book details the sex industry serving the Japanese military during the wartime occupation of Singapore: the comfort stations, managers, procuresses, girls and women who either volunteered or were forced into service and in many cases sexual slavery. Could it be that no former comfort women remained in Singapore after the war? Blackburn shows through a careful weighing of the different kinds of evidence why this was not the case. The immediate post-war years, and efforts to repatriate or ‘reform’ former comfort women fills in a key part of the history. The author then turns from history to the public presence of the comfort women in Singapore's memory: newspapers, novels, plays, television, and touristic heritage sites, showing how comfort women became known in Singapore during the 1990s and 2000s. Blackburn brings great care, balance and sensitivity to a difficult subject. LILY IS A GOOD DAUGHTER
Every evening she pours Mama a glass of perfectly spoilt orange juice. She arranges the teddy bears on Mama’s quilt, she puts on her matching pink clothes. Anything to help put out the fire of Mama’s rage. MAMA IS A GOOD LIAR But Mama is becoming unpredictable, dangerous. And as she starts to unravel, so do the memories that Lily has kept locked away for so long. She only wanted to be good, to help piece Mama back together. But as home truths creep out of the shadows, Lily must recast everything: what if her house isn’t a home – but a prison? What if Mama isn’t a protector – but a monster . . . Gripping and devastating, from a voice that cuts as sharp as a knife, this is an unforgettable story about a family gone bad. About the author: Ella King is a Singaporean novelist living in London. She read Philosophy and Theology at Oxford University and attended Faber Academy’s ‘Writing A Novel’ course. Currently, she works as a corporate lawyer in London and volunteers at anti-human trafficking and domestic violence charities. She was inspired to write Bad Fruit by the stories her grandmother told her and her volunteer work with anti-human trafficking and domestic violence charities. When does a space become a place? How do the places we inhabit shape our lived experiences and identities?
In Once Upon A Place: 8 Singaporean Memoirs, eight individuals from all walks of life share the stories of their places past and present found in different pockets of Singapore. These personal histories collectively unfold into a broader Singaporean narrative about landscapes that change with the passage of time. Embark on an intimate journey of the heart as you delve into worlds lived, loved and lost, in this anthology. (128 pages / $18) |
Siao char bor! Mm tzai si! Crazy girl! Want to die is it?
The millennium is ending and Singapore, now a glittering economic powerhouse, is loosening up and partying. Pagers connect everyone and Singapore’s love affair with big chain coffee has just begun. In Holland Village, avid mystery reader Mei is raising the shutters on the Can-Do bookshop. Juggling her job, her family, her friends and worries about her future is keeping her busy but when a customer is murdered, Mei needs to know why. Taking lessons from her favourite detectives, the always inquisitive — some would say kaypoh — Mei navigates the darker side of Singapore to find out what really led to the death of Sally Song. Watch the book trailer here! Sandi Tan was born in Singapore. She directed the Netflix film Shirkers, which won a Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival, was named Best Documentary by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and was shortlisted for the Oscar for Best Documentary. She's lived in Los Angeles for twenty years but everyone still thinks she lives in New York.
~ The residents of Santa Claus Lane do their best to stay out of each other’s way, but desire, fury and mischief too often propel these suburban neighbors to collide. Precocious Korean American sisters Mira and Rosemary find their world rocked by a suicide, and they must fight to keep their home; a charismatic and creepy drama teacher grooms his students; a sardonic gay horror novelist finds that aging is more terrifying than any monster; and a white hippie mom and her adopted Vietnamese daughter realize that their anger binds them rather than pushes them apart. Lurkers is an homage to the rangy beauty of Los Angeles and the surprising power that we have to change the lives of those around us. "How is Lurkers simultaneously hilarious and horrifying? I'll tell you how: PURE GENIUS. Sandi Tan populates Santa Claus Lane, her leafy corner of suburban LA, with such viscerally original characters that I found myself laughing at their outrageousness while nodding at their familiar humanity. Every page of this wildly original book is a surprise and a delight." --Kevin Kwan, bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians Lee Wen loved art, music, poetry and performance with a passion. He presented all art forms in his own unique way, even when others didn’t care for it. And boy are we glad he did!
An inspiring story of how Lee Wen became the great performance artist that he was. Artist Interview | A Waking Dream: Sun-boy and Yellow Man by Lee Wen
Set in a 21st century Southeast Asian port city where spirits still linger, The Ash House weaves between the visible and invisible to tell the story of an overseas-Chinese merchant family haunted by the legacy of love gone wrong, with an ending both unexpected and heartbreaking.
The Tjoa ash house originally intended for ancestral tablets has stood at the top of Kota Cahaya’s exclusive Green Hill for a century. Now, it is all drooping lintels and sagging roof; a haunted house with a haunted heir in it-Arno Tjoa, a Barbie-doll fixated cripple whom Sister Mary Michael, the clairvoyant nun, has been sent to set free. Arno believes that Bing Fa-the fascinating spirit of a pipa-diva trapped in a ghost marriage to his grandfather-is the key to solving the misfortunes plaguing the house. All will be well with Girl, the comatose maid he is obsessed with, Irene Tjoa his controlling aunt, and the Tjoa fortunes if Bing Fa is released from her doll-house prison. However, as the family’s skeletons are unearthed, the nun realizes it is not in her power to save everyone or everything. Who must be sacrificed? What must be left to turn to dust? Blue Sky Mansion tells the tale of Tang Mei Choon, a young girl who was sold into servitude and nearly ends up being entombed alive. She flees with her saviour, a benign gentleman called Chen Tong, to Penang, Malaya, where a new set of troubles arise and threaten her life again.
In her sixth collection of poetry where the real, virtual and literary mix, Heng Siok Tian travels through landscapes and explores relationships of family, friendships, the familiar and the foreign.
With her signature simplicity and honesty, she tenderly ferries her deceased mother to the realm of memory while she reflects on the commotions of life at home and abroad. Through these, she reminds readers that the past contains limitless potential for journeys of the imagination, and that nostalgia can be both gentle and powerful. Selected for the prestigious 2021 White Ravens catalogue of international book recommendations, compiled by the International Youth Library.
A boy takes a journey of self-discovery and challenges the status quo. With the help of his faithful friends, a young boy tries to escape from a society that has everything mapped out for him, only to be met by gatekeepers on the way. Can he succeed to find a place where he can be himself? A crossover picture book like no other, Lemonade Sky makes readers of all ages think big about what it means to be truly free. (44 pages / $16 / Age 3+) Hailed as “the definitive Singaporean novel”, this new edition of Heartland is accompanied by a new preface by author Daren Shiau and a publisher’s foreword that contextualises the novel’s imprint on the Singapore literary landscape since its first publication in 1999.
An iconic work, Heartland explores the paradox of rootedness and rootlessness in fast-changing Singapore. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows the years of Wing Seng as he leaves school and is conscripted into full-time National Service. As Wing tries to reconcile his past with his future amid transitions through different phases of life, he finds meaning in his intense attachment to his surrounding landscape. Yet, as relationships and the years slip by, Wing is forced to question his own certainties and the wisdom of the people he values. Set in Singapore’s heartland at the turn of the century, Heartland’s capturing of the texture of everyday life provides the backdrop essential to the bildungsroman’s exploration of identity, belonging and connection in an increasingly urbanised Singapore. All her life, Audrey has done what is expected of her, following her father’s footsteps into the civil service, the “iron rice bowl” of Singapore. When a chance opportunity arises to attend a writing retreat in the Wonju mountains of South Korea, she grabs it, not knowing what to expect. Unexplainable things soon start happening to her, while a long-buried memory surfaces, threatening to unravel her calm and carefully-orchestrated world.
From a future of electronic doas and AI psychotherapists, sense-activated communion with forests and a portal to realms undersea, to a reimagined origin and afterlife—editor and translator Nazry Bahrawi brings together an exciting selection of never-before translated and new Malay spec-fic stories by established and emerging writers from Singapore.
Especially in an anglophone-dominated genre, very little of Malay speculative fiction from Singapore is known to readers here and beyond. Yet contemporary Bahasa literature here is steeped in spec-fic writing that can account as a literary movement (aliran)—and unmistakably draws from the minority Malay experience in a city obsessed with progress. Contributors Bani Haykal, Diana Rahim, Farihan Baron, Hassan Hasaa’Ree Ali, Ila, Maisarah Abu Samah, Nazry Bahrawi, nor, Noridah Kamari, Nuraliah Norasid, Pasidah Rahmat, Tuty Alawiyah Isnin $15 per title. Click here for synopsis of each title.
How does one rise above the trauma of child sexual abuse?
Sofia Abdullah is now an international women’s and children’s rights champion, fighting for equality and fair treatment for disempowered groups all over the world. But she comes from a painful past—one in which she was sexually abused as a child by a family member. Taking many years to heal from the trauma, these are pages from her notes documenting her journey of coming to terms with what had happened. This is her journey of moving on. About the author: Sofia Abdullah was born and raised in Singapore. Of Malay and Javanese descent, Sofia went to an all-girls school in Katong, the Peranakan part of Singapore. She spent her childhood in Marine Parade, by the seaside. Sofia attended university in England on a scholarship. Her work took her to Germany, India and then the USA. She is now an advocate for children’s rights and works on the issues of child sex trafficking and child sexual abuse. Othman Wok left an indelible mark on Singaporean politics and society: signing the Independence of Singapore Agreement 1965, overseeing the construction of Singapore’s first large-scale sporting arena, working to advance the quality of social welfare services, developing the Mosque Building Fund, and being (in the words of PM Lee Hsien Loong) “steadfast and unwavering in believing in a multiracial, multi-religious, meritocratic Singapore”, among many other accomplishments.
In addition, he pioneered the writing of ghost stories and horror fiction in Malay while working as a young reporter for Utusan Melayu and Mustika magazine between 1952 and 1956. These stories were fantastically popular, making him a household name in the Malay-speaking world, years before his political career took off. In fact, these tales may have been the first examples of horror fiction in either Singapore or Malaysia, in any language. A murder mystery wrapped in history and unfolded within a love story.
Singapore University Campus, 1980. Professor Bernard Fox is found hanging from his overhead fan. Everything points to suicide except for one thing: if Bernard hanged himself, how did he turn on the fan? The autopsy shows the professor had consumed enough tranquillizers to sedate but not to kill. But if he were sedated and murdered, why would his murderer turn on the fan? The turning fan prompts an investigation takes us into the turbulent history of Singapore’s birth as a nation, uncovers a search for World War II treasure and exposes a second-generation thirst for revenge. Mr Roll is a regular toilet paper tube. He is hardworking and does his job well. But when the paper runs out, he is tossed aside and labelled as trash… Is this the end for Mr Roll?
Come along with Mr Roll as he discovers that there is so much more that he can be. “I wrote Mr Roll for my dad. I think my dad is going through this period where he feels he has come to the end of his usefulness, or his significance, now that he’s retired. “I hope through this new series I’ve started, he will see he’s still significant to us.” https://pride.kindness.sg/turning-junk-into-children-toys/ In 1890s Singapore, the formidable Miss Leda Cassidy arrives as paid companion to Sarah Jane Bendemeer, whose family suffers under the thrall of Southeast Asia's most terrifying hantu. But there's more to Miss Cassidy than meets the eye, and she's faced down worse in her life than a banana-tree ghoul.
However, she may have met her match in the indefatigable businessman, Mr Kay Wing Tong, whose large and constantly-growing family clearly requires female supervision—especially of the particular kind Miss Cassidy can provide. Ill omens and strange happenings surround Mr Kay and his colourful family, and Miss Cassidy must find a way to defend the ones she has learned to love. At the turn of the twentieth century, two young men from Palakkad, Puthu and Krishnan, meet aboard a ship bound for Malaya, and strike up an instant connection. Over the next two decades, they set up a restaurant in Singapore selling curry puffs and kopi, become successful, get married and start families. However, Krishnan harbours a dark secret that threatens to destroy the dreams he and Puthu have built together, a secret that only carelessness can reveal…
Co-Winner of the 2021 Epigram Books Fiction Prize
Sally Bong is the typical do-gooder. But her journey as an exemplary citizen of Singapore is put into question when she meets people on the margins, upending everything she has learned in school. In a follow-up to the hilarious Let’s Give It Up for Gimme Lao!, Sebastian Sim delves deeper into a nation’s psyche with more shrewd humour than ever before. In The Dogs, Guan, a middle-aged man, decides to move back into the flat that had once belonged to his late father, who had died in it a few months back. He sells off his old flat and, in the process, estranges himself from his own son, who is at a loss over his father’s sudden decision.
While trying to settle in and to make sense of the new surroundings, Guan slowly gets to know the residents of the block and becomes acquainted with a neighbour, an old lonely man who dresses in his dead wife’s clothes. As Guan explores and discovers more of the estate he lives in, through his long walks, he starts to have flashbacks about his past,vividly remembering his childhood in a kampong in Singapore in the 1950s, and his close friendship with Heng Chong, a schoolmate. He recalls the pranks and games they played, the mischief they got into—prowling the Sembawang Hills estate and setting the dogs free from the big houses in that estate—and the secrets they shared, one of which was the mysterious death of Heng Chong’s baby sister who died during birth, something which set the boys on a quest to find the truth behind it. As they delved more and more into their investigations, the friendship between them was slowly tested, gradually revealing the cracks that began to tear them apart. The arrival of a stray dog in their kampong, one that the boys adopted as their own, soon proved to be the catalyst that sparked off a chain of events that led to the dissolution of their friendship, and the unforeseen death of a loved one that cast a long, indelible shadow over Guan’s life subsequently. As Guan looks back into the past to find the answers to the mystery that surrounded this tragic death, he also comes to a clearer understanding of his present predication and learns to cope with his own personal losses and find ways to redeem himself from his past acts. In the act of negotiating his past and his pain, Guan finds new hopes in his solitude, and a new life he’s slowly building with hard-won resilience, fortitude and purpose. Behind the golden façade of a land filled with opportunities dwell two destitute souls, shipped to Singapore in the late 1800s.
Oseki, an ingenue forced into prostitution as a karayuki, grapples with being betrayed by her own father and transforms into a monster she can’t recognise. Gobind, a deaf convict from India, serves his sentence as a punkhawala to a British hunter obsessed with killing Rimau Satan, a man-eating tiger of mythic proportions. Whenever Gobind hunts with his master, his butchered memories lurk in the darkness, aching to pounce. When Oseki’s and Gobind’s paths intertwine, they begin to face their inner demons to find their humanity—and their way back home. After three years in Japan, Fred Buchanan is broke, unemployed and engaged in a telepathic turf war with a feral cat behind an Okinawa convenience store. Thus begins his metaphysical odyssey back to Tokyo.
Along the way, symbols and sages materialize in the form of a two-fingered jazz musician, the faded tattoo on an ex-yakuza lover, an odd brood of internet cafe refugees, the kite flyer of Kabukicho and Yukie, an alluring hostess with strips of delicious thigh and strange power imbued in the etched eye on her fingernail. Charging through Shinjuku’s neon jungle, enveloped in a boozy, nicotine-stained haze, past and present collide as an empty orchestra croons a slow dance of people and place, memory and madness, loss and love. All the while, Fred struggles to be an agent of his destiny and not another ball bearing bouncing through the cosmic pachinko. Rainy Day Ramen and the Cosmic Pachinko is told as a uniquely clever mix of Murakami-esque magical realism and gonzo Japan travelogue. Gordon Vanstone is a Canadian working in academic publishing in Singapore following eight years as an international school teacher in Tokyo. This, his first novel, is an ode to the country which captured a piece of his heart. What if the gods were condemned to immortality due to the continued storytelling by mortals? What if Hades met Persephone in contemporary Singapore? Would their story still arrive at its age-old conclusion?
Sophie is an ordinary florist living an ordinary mortal life in Singapore whilst caring for an aged mother suffering from dementia. One day, a peculiar man (with the same name as the ancient Greek god of the Underworld) crashes into her life and falls heavier and heavier in her debt. Sophie tries to help him recover from amnesia and get back on his feet, while in the meantime, arranging for him to work for room and board at her flower shop. As time goes by, she grows accustomed to his company. She becomes unsure if she actually wants him to quickly pay off his debt and step out of her life just as abruptly as he had arrived… Absurd, comedic, and tender at the same time, this whimsical variation of the classic Greek myth will not fail to amuse and delight. Emmanuel was in school when he received a strange visitor. It seems that no one but Emman could see the boy who was dressed in an old-fashioned Malay outfit. When Emman approached him, the boy ‘spoke’ to Emman telepathically to tell him that he was The One. When Emman asked him The One what? The boy said, The One to save him. The boy made an urgent plea to Emman to help him, then dashed away hastily. A magic portal opened up and the boy stepped through it and disappeared.
Before he left, the boy had told Emman to attend a talk called The Redhill Tragedy. Curious, Emman searched online and found the talk to be at the National Museum. He asked his Peranakan, paternal grandmother to attend with him. The talk was about a boy Nadim, who was killed in the Redhill Tragedy. Suddenly, the boy Emman saw before, appeared again, telling Emman he was Nadim. He persuaded Emman to save him. But what could Emman do? Nadim had lived and died in the 14th century Singapura. How could he undo history? And how would he be able to get back to the 14th Century to prevent Nadim’s murder? When he posed his dilemma to his Grandmother, Grandma surprised him by telling him that she can show him a way. But first he must have the courage to accept the quest. He is no longer him, today. At ten, he saw a chicken beheaded in his backyard, he too, an accomplice. He roamed his village, sometimes barefoot, wading through streams, backyards of his neighbors’ houses where young men were high, smoking ganja. He once saw a group of men in red headbands with Arabic words on them, ready to march to the capital city to slaughter many.
He fought demons, wept when the family dog died battling a cobra. He saw men in a trance, munching on broken glasses and hibiscus petals, high on Javanese trance-dance music, turning into horses. A spaceship landed on the school field. He thought he died, shot by Martians. He was saved from being a Taliban. Saved by the music of the American Hippies. He confronted a boy in a green robe and white turban, preaching jihad against Western music. He chased the young mullah out of the school. His story told in the language of the Sixties. Of Beat poetry. Of rap, joyfully, he now narrates with melancholy. Azly Rahman presents a mixed-genre memoir-snippets of growing up in a world rooted in the pastoral-ness and ruralness of things. The world of his kampong or the Malay village. The central theme is “growing up gangsta” in a Malay village that offered the realism and the supernaturalism of things, seen through the lens of a boy in his early teens. About the author: Dr. Azly Rahman is an educator, academic, international columnist, and author of eight books. Born in Singapore, he grew up in a Malay village in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. He holds a doctorate in International Education Development from Columbia University in the City of New York, and Master's degrees in six areas: education, international affairs, peace studies communication, fiction and non-fiction writing. Delving into the mind and soul of one of Singapore’s most prominent
performance artists. Writer, biographer and mental health advocate, Chan Li Shan takes us on a path of discovery while painting a vivid and searingly honest picture of a man many knew of, but few really knew. Along the way, she learns almost as much about herself as she does about the enigmatic artist Lee Wen. Chan Li Shan is a PhD candidate at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, where she has been awarded the Biography Prize for her work on Lee Wen. Her memoir, A Philosopher’s Madness, was published in 2012. She was Director of the Writing Centre and Writing Residency Fellow at the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh. A hardboiled detective. His knuckleheaded partner. And a bar girl with a mysterious past. Their lives intersect in the most unlikely of places – a murder scene, where a minister who killed himself 20 years ago, is found dead again.
In the tradition of noir comics like Sin City, Sprawl is gritty and laced with dark humour. Innovative and surprising in its blend of poetry and art, Sprawl is the first in a new graphic novel series by Felix Cheong and Arif Rafhan. Introducing Claudia Lin: a sharp-witted amateur sleuth for the 21st century. This debut novel follows Claudia as she verifies people’s online lives, and lies, for a dating detective agency in New York City. Until a client with an unusual request goes missing …
Claudia is used to disregarding her fractious family’s model-minority expectations: she has no interest in finding either a conventional career or a nice Chinese boy. She’s also used to keeping secrets from them, such as that she prefers girls—and that she’s just been stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referrals-only online-dating detective agency. A lifelong mystery reader who wrote her senior thesis on Jane Austen, Claudia believes she’s landed her ideal job. But when a client vanishes, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate—and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit. Part literary mystery, part family story, The Verifiers is a clever and incisive examination of how technology shapes our choices, and the nature of romantic love in the digital age. The stock of all the above titles are available at the time of producing this catalogue. If the title(s) that you have pre ordered is out of stock, we will let you know.
Three Singaporean university students in London, as unalike as can be, become roommates and then fast friends. Over three winters in the mid-2010s, Gigi, Yi-En and Clare rely on each other in the face of trauma and big, scary life changes. When news comes of Clare’s disappearance, Gigi and En take a road trip to the countryside to retrace the path of her final days. What We Learned from Driving in Winter explores how we are able to live with tragedy with a little help from our friends.
Did you know that many resistance fighters in the Malayan jungles were just teenagers? That one of the first large-scale coded messages created in changi prison was inspired by girl guides? And that some university students returned to Singapore as commando-spies?
We Shall Remember: The Story of Singapore at War is a fascinating account of World War Two and the Japanese Occupation in Singapore. Aimed at children aged 9-12 years old, it traces the war from the Japanese invasion at Kota Bharu in 1941 and the fall of Singapore, through its ordeal during the Japanese Occupation, and finally to the Japanese surrender in 1945. In addition to events that we are familiar with, this book also uncovers little-known but no less exciting stories of Singapore’s war experience, such as the secret school in Sime Road Prison, the courageous quilters in Changi Goal, the multi-racial volunteers of the Burma-Yunnan Road, the grandmother who became a fighter, and much more. Based on more than two years of extensive research, this densely packed book focuses on the human experience and brings to light aspects of the war that has been forgotten in a narrative long dominated by the Western point of view. The people who march through its pages with their stories of courage and sacrifice are multi-racial and multi-national, which show the war as it truly played out here in Singapore. Hear from teenage resistance fighters, fearless commando-spies, the unbreakable war heroine, soldiers who chose death over dishonour, and much more. We Shall Remember is written by Singaporean author Sim Ee Waun, who also co-wrote The Little Singapore Book, The House on Palmer Road, and its wartime sequel The House on Silat Road. The 132-page book is aimed at being engaging and easy-to-understand for young readers. The main narrative is grouped into twelve chapters and complemented by sidebars of vignettes, fun facts, eye-witness quotes, explanations and helpful glossaries. Twenty-four detailed illustrations and maps by artist Lim An-Ling make this book all the more riveting. (To be released in early February 2022 to coincide with the 80th Anniversary of the fall of Singapore) Wartime Kitchen: Food And Eating In Singapore (1942-1950) examines the experience of people during the period following the fall of Singapore in 1942 up to 1950. The author presents an in-depth yet lively research comprising anecdotes, personal reminiscences on food and eating and a collection of recipes in wartime Singapore. How did people cope with the food regime of rationed goods, bureaucracy and unpredictable supply? How did they sustain themselves by exploiting opportunities in varied and imaginative ways? Atmospheric and nostalgic in retrospect, it examines how hunger and the need for food became an impetus for creativity.
With references made also from the Oral History Department of the National Archives of Singapore under the Japanese Occupation Project, this book is a miscellany of memories, valued for how they reveal the textures of everyday life, lend an immediacy and vividness to events and flesh out the details embedded in archived records. It focuses on the memories of the local population rather than that of officers and men of the British and Australian military forces and the European civilian internees. In reconstructing a history of food and eating in wartime Singapore, the book has taken from personal accounts including Chin Kee Onn’s Malaya Upside Down (1947); one of the earliest and most detailed first-hand accounts of life under the Japanese occupation; as well as comprehensive studies that have drawn from both personal memoirs and archival records, statistics and newspapers Immerse yourself in the first-ever collection of modern Singaporean fables.
Ten great fables with beautiful illustrations have been selected to give children the most pleasurable experience. Read about the Sunda slow loris who is sure to bite if you get too close, the red-cheeked flying squirrel who is afraid of flying, the mud lobster who welcomes a snake in his home, and learn lessons along the way. Don’t forget about the fun facts that follow—they are all about local flora and fauna. A great illustrated primer on fables to teach life lessons everyone should know. We live in a fragmented world that has caused alienation of our lives in many spheres and at multiple levels. The fifteen stories in this collection delve into the cracks and crevices of such lives in the social, political, economic, technological, cultural, artistic, sexual, psychological and religious spheres.
The book depicts levels of madness which ring in the lives of the characters caused by estrangement, isolation, desolation and loss of meaning in our contemporary world. The disheartening fact is that such alienated experiences are perceived to be normal and acceptable to many. There is still hope if we open doors of introspection and mindfulness to begin healing of our hearts and minds. For more titles, browse our mail order catalogues. Shipping time applies.
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