Sembawang: A Novel

Sembawang: A Novel
Author: Kamaladevi Aravindan
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2020-09-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 981492802X

Singapore, 1960s: Sembawang is home away from home for a tightly-knit community of bachelors and families who work at Her Majesty's Naval Base. Behind closed doors, a matriarch controls her daughters-in-law's movements. A bachelor from Kerala pines by his window for his forbidden lover. A maid from a rubber estate across the border aches to hold her young son once more. An inter-racial love between a conservative Tamil woman and a worldly Chinese man wreaks havoc in the life of an innocent bystander. The idyllic village life is shaken when two midwives are viciously attacked at the maternity clinic, and again when one of their own beloved residents meets with an unnatural death. As catastrophes strike, the village comes together as one. A dramatic, sweeping saga of Sembawang families across five decades.

From Kerala to Singapore

From Kerala to Singapore
Author: Anitha Devi Pillai
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Pte Limited
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2017
Genre: Hinduism
ISBN: 9789814721837

Comprehensive study into the Singapore Malayalee communityUnique combination of academic essays, personal oral testimonies, hundreds of personal photos, and detailed family treesEach personal story complemented with contemporary portrait photograph of intervieweeAlso includes special 'In Conversation' interviews with noted personalities, such as former President SR Nathan

Homeless: The Untold Story of a Mother’s Struggle in Crazy Rich Singapore

Homeless: The Untold Story of a Mother’s Struggle in Crazy Rich Singapore
Author: Liyana Dhamirah
Publisher: Epigram Books
Total Pages: 107
Release: 2019-09-30
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9814845582

Ten years ago, Liyana Dhamirah was in a precarious situation: at 22, she was heavily pregnant and had no place to call home. For Liyana, home was often unstable. Once a bright teenager full of optimism, she faced uncertainty and found no support from family, government agencies and welfare groups. She had nowhere to go, no one to turn to. When she started living on a beach in Sembawang, she discovered a community of people — families — who were homeless just like her. They stuck together and watched out for each other, even when there were raids. She learned that in prosperous Singapore, the homeless are not always identifiable by appearance alone. Months later, journalists eventually uncovered Liyana’s story and how she navigated a bureaucracy of obstacles. Today she is a successful entrepreneur and this is her memoir.

A View of Stars

A View of Stars
Author: Anitha Devi Pillai
Publisher:
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2021-07-07
Genre: Love
ISBN: 9789814928076

Especially for fans of love stories comes a collection written by established and new authors. This anthology is partly inspired by true stories and partly by well-known epic tales. A young woman of Peranakan descent in Singapore, a Malayalee woman thousands of miles away from Singapore at the brink of WWII and an interracial couple in current times, all face a similar predicament - Do they break free from conventions and follow their beckoning hearts? A young man with no future nor prospects pines for his one true love in his kampong, a May-December couple's plans for their second chance is threatened, a young impressionable woman falls for a man-child - Will fate give them a helping hand? What if Cinderella's evil stepmother had loved her? What if the hundred nights of pursuit of the 10th-century Japanese court lady Ono Komachi took place in Singapore? What if a single decision, one moment or an unspoken wish changed your life forever?

Soul Of Ink: Lim Tze Peng At 100

Soul Of Ink: Lim Tze Peng At 100
Author: Tai Ho Woon
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2021-06-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9811237042

Soul of Ink: Lim Tze Peng at 100 pays tribute to the remarkable achievement of artistic renaissance at 100. It traces the lean beginnings of Lim Tze Peng's early years, relives the times of controversy over the artist's innovations in Chinese calligraphy, and celebrates his breakthroughs. Throughout the book, attention is paid to Lim Tze Peng the man, the foundation of everything that is admirable about Lim Tze Peng the artist. It looks at the man behind the art, and how art has given life to him and his family.Farmer, teacher, principal, and artist, Lim Tze Peng counts Lee Man Fong, Cheong Soo Pieng, and Liu Kang as his mentors. These men, like the others from the pioneering generation of Nanyang artists, are no longer around. Lim Tze Peng remains standing, a witness to and player in Singapore's art history since the 1940s.His life started late; everything got going only after the ripe old age of 80. A Cultural Medallion winner at 82 and a Meritorious Service recipient at 95, Lim Tze Peng is used to the twists and turns of life and has been trained by experience to endure the vagaries of fate. You could describe his art as the art of perseverance. The works he produces these days need to be seen to be believed. Bigger, bolder, and boasting far more colour than ever before, his art is as invigorating as that of a young man, whilst embodying the soul of a sage.At the heart of this book is the word 'soul'. What pushes a man at the age of 100 to continue breaking new ground in his life's work? How has he been able to surprise not just the art community but himself?This is Woon Tai Ho's second book on a Singaporean artist. His first, To Paint a Smile, is about the artist Tan Swie Hian.

Girl Out Of Place

Girl Out Of Place
Author: Syl Van Duyn
Publisher: Aurora Metro Publications Ltd.
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2020-11-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1912430444

A coming-of-age story set during the liberation of Indonesia (formerly the Dutch East Indies). At the end of the war, Nell is released from a Japanese internment camp in Java. While searching for her father in the chaos, she meets Tim, a young man who is looking for his family too. Nell’s journey takes her first to Singapore then to a new life and new friends in Sydney, Australia. But although Tim may well be the love of her life, her father puts her on a passenger liner bound for the Netherlands. Will Nell really be able to settle in a country she’s never known – and will she ever see Tim again? Based on the true story of Nora Valk, this is an exciting tale of courage and friendship, hope and determination, about the search for love and a place to finally call home.

Tapestry of Colours Volume 2

Tapestry of Colours Volume 2
Author: Anitha Devi Pillai
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd
Total Pages: 182
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9815009478

This book comprises stories from Southeast Asia, South Asia and East Asia, written especially for young adults. This specially curated anthology of short stories from Asia explores the human spirit and lives of the common man separated by time, space and culture, and yet united in the human spirit to overcome the difficulties that they face in life. It provides an insight into the rich and diverse landscape of Asia, as well as heritage and cultural practices. It also challenges pre-conceived notions of biases and beliefs about other cultures and opens up room for discussion on the differences that define the human race. A Tapestry of Colours 2 provides a platform for readers to develop global awareness of the landscape and the people of Asia.

From Estate to Embassy

From Estate to Embassy
Author: K. Kesavapany
Publisher:
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2019
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9789814841504

This biography documents K. Kesavapany's journey from the Malayan estates in the late 1930s to his move to Singapore when he was headhunted to join the Singapore Civil Service in the 1970s, and from his entry into Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to his subsequent sojourns abroad, such as in Australia, Turkey, Geneva, Jordan, Indonesia, Russia, United Kingdom and Malaysia. After retiring from his last post with the MFA, he took on the position of Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore. This book also elaborates on the next phase of his journey where he holds several prominent portfolios in Singapore's social and academic scene, such as at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Dyslexia Association of Singapore, Singapore Indian Association, Inter-Religious Organization, as well as the Singapore International Foundation.

A River Runs through It and Other Stories

A River Runs through It and Other Stories
Author: Norman MacLean
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2017-05-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 022647223X

The New York Times–bestselling classic set amid the mountains and streams of early twentieth-century Montana, “as beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway” (Chicago Tribune). When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs Through It and Other Stories to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. One editor, so the story goes, replied, “it has trees in it.” Today, the title novella is recognized as one of the great American tales of the twentieth century, and Maclean as one of the most beloved writers of our time. The finely distilled product of a long life of often surprising rapture—for fly-fishing, for the woods, for the interlocked beauty of life and art—A River Runs Through It has established itself as a classic of the American West filled with beautiful prose and understated emotional insights. Based on Maclean’s own experiences as a young man, the book’s two novellas and short story are set in the small towns and mountains of western Montana. It is a world populated with drunks, loggers, card sharks, and whores, but also one rich in the pleasures of fly-fishing, logging, cribbage, and family. By turns raunchy and elegiac, these superb tales express, in Maclean’s own words, “a little of the love I have for the earth as it goes by.” “Maclean’s book—acerbic, laconic, deadpan—rings out of a rich American tradition that includes Mark Twain, Kin Hubbard, Richard Bissell, Jean Shepherd, and Nelson Algren.” —New York Times Book Review Includes a new foreword by Robert Redford, director of the Academy Award–winning film adaptation