SINGAPORE – In this month’s edition of Singapore Shelf, The Straits Times lines up six new titles – from a novel by literary doyenne Suchen Christine Lim to a book reflecting on race in Singapore.
1. Dearest Intimate
By Suchen Christine Lim
Fiction/Marshall Cavendish Editions/Paperback/352 pages/$29.96/Books Kinokuniya
The first two sentences of Suchen Christine Lim’s new novel came to her, quite literally, in a dream.
In 2015, the literary doyenne was in Vietnam on a writer’s residency and staying at an old hotel in Hoi An. One night, Lim, who was sleeping on a four-poster bed, woke up at 4am.
“I had this dream where I saw a pillowcase embroidered with two mandarin ducks swimming and Chinese characters, two sentences. My eyes saw the Chinese characters but I understood them in English in my head,” the 74-year-old tells The Straits Times.
2. Brown Is Redacted: Reflecting On Race In Singapore
Edited by Kristian-Marc James Paul, Mysara Aljaru and Myle Yan Tay
Non-fiction/Ethos Books/Paperback/220 pages/$25 before GST/www.ethosbooks.com.sg
This collection of essays, academic works, poems and stories was inspired by Brown Is Haram, a performance-lecture performed by Kristian-Marc James Paul and Mysara Aljaru at The Substation in 2021.
The two of them write in their introduction that this collection is “as much about highlighting brownness as it is about attempting to transcend brownness: we are all more than our minority race, our brown bodies”.
“Though this rallying cry is illuminated through this text, greater society still finds it easier, more convenient and more strategic to confine us within specific positions on the hierarchy. We are the people who shake our heads from side to side, the people who are lazy and the people more likely to contract diabetes. Or the people who succeed in spite of these ‘natural tendencies’. That is why it is important that we ourselves create narratives actively challenging these reductions.”
3. Khairat Kita: A History Of Malay/Muslim Mutual Aid In Singapore
By Fauzy Ismail, Zakaria Zainal and Zaki Jumahri
Non-fiction/Ethos Books/Paperback/108 pages/$20 before GST/www.ethosbooks.com.sg
This book gives an overview of the history of Malay/Muslim Mutual Benefit Organisations in Singapore.
Known as badan khairat kematian (death social welfare organisation), these groups were originally set up to provide financial assistance to the relatives of a deceased member.
There are now about 20 such organisations left today – less than a quarter of what existed in the mid-1980s.
4. Validation
By H.J. Pang
Fiction/Marshall Cavendish Editions/Paperback/192 pages/$23.01/Books Kinokuniya
Xiao Shiong is an engineering undergraduate who hates his life.
After his abusive father attempts to kill him, Xiao Shiong figures that Singapore needs a superhero.
The young man puts his parkour skills and army combat training to good use by assuming the identity of Red Puma – a vigilante fighter of crime. Before long, he starts trending on social media.
Beginning with the chapter #LifeSucks and ending with #GetAJob!, this book explores the inadequacy a person feels when he is unable to live up to society’s expectations, and the perils of turning to the Internet for validation.
Author H.J. Pang, a research engineer by day, also wrote the post-apocalyptic thriller, The Last Server (2019).
5. Sengkang Snoopers: The Riddle Of The Coral Isle
By Peter Tan, illustrated by Billy Yong
Children’s/Epigram Books/Paperback/224 pages/$15.94/Books Kinokuniya
In this third instalment in the Sengkang Snoopers series, Su Lin, Su Yang, Bus, Zizi and their parrot head to Big Sister’s Island in Singpore on a camping holiday.
When the children spot a strange boat circling the nearby Little Sister’s Island, home to a hatchery for rare turtle eggs, they decide to investigate.
6. Kali’s Frog In The Throat
By Eve Aw, illustrated by Qin Yi
Children’s/Epigram Books/Paperback/32 pages/$15.94/Books Kinokuniya
The second book in the I Love Idioms series teaches children what it means to have a “frog in the throat”.
