https://www.scmp.com/rss/11258/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Ponti by Sharlene Teo  Picador 4.5 stars Sharlene Teo won the inaugural Deborah Rogers Writers Award (established in honour of the late London literary agent) in 2016 for an extract from her work-in-progress, Ponti, set in her native Singapore. The UK-based writer’s novel has finally been published. Ponti (short for pontianak, the man-hunting female ghoul of Malay legend) is part coming-of-age, part dawn-of-death novel. In 2003, as Singapore chokes under the haze produced by forest fires in... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2140522/ponti-great-singaporean-novel-compelling-evocative-coming-age-tale-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2140522/ponti-great-singaporean-novel-compelling-evocative-coming-age-tale-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 09 Apr 2018 00:45:45 +0000 Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan Penguin Random House 4.5/5 stars In 2015, Indonesian-born Singaporean author Clarissa Goenawan won the prestigious Bath Novel Award for unpublished and self-published novelists for her novel Rainbirds, which – more than two years later – is now seeing the light of day. Why educated, professional women in China aren’t marrying – new book explores the ‘leftover women’ phenomenon Rainbirds is set in 1990s Japan. In the small, fictional town of Akakawa, Keiko Ishida... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2136517/rainbirds-book-review-moving-investigation-love-murder-and-grief-set?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2136517/rainbirds-book-review-moving-investigation-love-murder-and-grief-set?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Mar 2018 01:30:53 +0000 White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Chatto & Windus 4/5 stars White Chrysanthemum memorialises Korean “comfort women” – women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese occupying forces during the second world war. In her debut novel, London-based Korean-American writer Mary Lynn Bracht explores the effects these women’s abductions had on their families and on wider society, and celebrates the power of women to survive horrific circumstances. Bracht’s protagonists are female... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2131748/white-chrysanthemum-review-ordeal-korean-comfort-women-explored?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2131748/white-chrysanthemum-review-ordeal-korean-comfort-women-explored?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Feb 2018 23:33:32 +0000 Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal HarperCollins 3.5 stars Rising Singaporean author Balli Kaur Jaswal’s teasingly entitled and intricately plotted novel incorporates multiple storylines with elements of rom-com, mystery, and family saga. The main protagonist, Nikki, is a 22-year-old, single, independent-minded university drop-out in London. She lives alone above the pub where she works while she searches for her calling, and for love. In the way of adult children... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2100034/book-review-erotic-stories-punjabi-widows-singaporean-authors-novel?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2100034/book-review-erotic-stories-punjabi-widows-singaporean-authors-novel?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Jun 2017 01:03:04 +0000 Singapore Love Stories edited by Verena Tay and Raelee Chapman Monsoon Books 3.5/5 stars Singapore Love Stories is a collection of 17 short stories, from Singaporean and Singapore-based writers. The anthology is edited by local author Verena Tay, who contributed Ex, while Australian expat author Raelee Chapman, who contributed The Gardener, is credited as “anthology coordinator and compiler”. All the stories are commendable for having a strong sense of place: not one of them is so generic that... https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2044787/book-review-singapore-love-stories-looks-love-lion-citys-many?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2044787/book-review-singapore-love-stories-looks-love-lion-citys-many?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 10 Nov 2016 07:30:30 +0000 That Man In Our Lives by Xu Xi C&R Press The man in the title of the upcoming book by Hong Kong author Xu Xi, That Man in Our Lives, is Gordon Ashberry. But who is he? And where is he? And in what sense is he, or isn’t he, the protagonist of That Man in Our Lives? And is he or isn’t he somebody in whom the reader can wholeheartedly believe? Questions such as these tease the reader of That Man in Our Lives. Gordon Ashberry, also known as Gordie, also known by his Chinese name Hui Guo, is a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/1967001/book-review-hong-kong-author-xu-xi-explores-shifting?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/1967001/book-review-hong-kong-author-xu-xi-explores-shifting?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 07 Jun 2016 01:00:15 +0000 Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear John Murray $232 Private detective Maisie Dobbs gets her second outing in Jacqueline Winspear's new crime novel. Maisie, who calls herself a psychologist and investigator, started as a maid to the London aristocracy, then won herself a place at Cambridge, before serving as a nurse in the first world war. It's little wonder she has wisdom, experience and understanding beyond her years. In keeping with her psychological inclinations, Maisie is... https://www.scmp.com/article/489654/birds-feather?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/489654/birds-feather?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Feb 2005 16:00:00 +0000 BUDDING NOVELISTS might not mind being compared to their more famous counterparts, but it's quite another thing when they not only beat you to publication with the same idea but use your title, too. For Rosie Milne, novelist and South China Morning Post contributor, the pride at finishing her latest novel was tempered when she found out that British author Tony Parsons had written a similar-sounding novel - with the same title. Parsons, in Hong Kong last year on a book tour, was asked about... https://www.scmp.com/article/483914/baby-talk?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/483914/baby-talk?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 01 Jan 2005 16:00:00 +0000 Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia 1941-1945 by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper Allen Lane $375 This is an ambitious and moving account of events leading up to the collapse of the British Empire in Asia. While those events continue to shape the region, the book's relevance to Hong Kong readers may be limited. Despite the subtitle's promise to explore the 'fall of Asia', the occupation of Hong Kong is scarcely mentioned, except in brief asides during discussions about Singapore. In... https://www.scmp.com/article/476171/forgotten-armies-fall-british-asia-1941-1945?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/476171/forgotten-armies-fall-british-asia-1941-1945?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Oct 2004 16:00:00 +0000 Hong Konger Kris Webb has just signed a contract for the US release of Sacking The Stork, the novel she wrote with her sister, Kathy Wilson. No release date has been set for the story of modern motherhood, but Webb has plenty of time. The Australian mother of two toddlers is within days of handing in the manuscript of her second book, Inheriting Jack. The sisters - Wilson is mum to a two-year-old - tell of a single, working mum who becomes the adoptive parent of an 18-month-old after her best... https://www.scmp.com/article/425006/under-cover?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/425006/under-cover?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Aug 2003 16:00:00 +0000