True stories. Soul-baring moments. No apologies.
Two schoolgirls in Yemen skip class, and wander into a yellow circus tent, empty except for one rusty cage. A Jordanian man spends a maddening summer in his sweaty apartment cursing his loud, ignorant neighbours. A woman in Beirut is heartsick, waiting for her kidnapped parrot to return. A young Bangladeshi-American argues with her father about her choice of boyfriend. A lady discovers the secret about the Pakistani neighbour who had stolen her birthday gifts. And an Iraqi soldier pines for an American journalist obsessed with someone else.
This ambitious collection is a four-year quest to find diverse stories from many Muslim worlds that build bridges between each of us, through intimate, and incredibly human experiences of love, loss, laughter and everything in between.
Thought provoking and persuasive, Renovating Democracy serves as a point of departure that deepens and expands the discourse for positive change in governance. The rise of populism in the West and the rise of China in the East have stirred a rethinking of how democratic systems work—and how they fail. The impact of globalism and digital capitalism is forcing worldwide attention to the starker divide between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots,’ challenging how we think about the social
contract.
With fierce clarity and conviction, Renovating Democracy tears down our basic structures and challenges us to conceive of an alternative framework for governance. To truly renovate our global systems, the authors argue for empowering participation without populism by integrating social networks and direct democracy into the system with new mediating institutions that complement representative government. They outline steps to reconfigure the social contract to protect workers instead of jobs, shifting from a ‘redistribution’ after wealth to ‘pre-distribution’ with the aim to enhance the skills and assets of those less welloff. Lastly, they argue for harnessing globalization through ‘positive nationalism’ at home while advocating for global cooperation—specifically with a partnership with
China—to create a viable rules-based world order.
In Whisper in the Wind, a wind wandering through the ruins of an old church blows a letter into the path of a writer in search of a story. Laboriously written, the letter begs Sara to come home to her sister, Alice. Deeply moved, Jai Mehta promises the little orphan girl, Alice, that he will help find her sister, Sara, who has been missing for five years. Jai is a reluctant detective. He has had to hold a knife to his wrist to get his family to allow him one chance at his dream, and all he wants to do is finish writing his
book. But, the story his promise leads him to is darker and more intriguing that any he could have dreamed of writing. Searching for one missing servant girl leads him into a tangled tale of loyalty and deceit. And of a love that has endured beyond the grave. Set in Portuguese-ruled Goa, this haunting tale brings the touch of the Gothic to a mystery that involves a girl with the voice of an angel, a violin that plays the sorrows of the heart, and the bond between two friends who swear that not even death will do them apart.
Acutely observed, wry and playful, her debut collection celebrates people who are torn between cultures and juggling a fragmented sense of self.
Five writers form a writing support group but the dynamics shift when a young, handsome Asian writer joins them; three Singaporean daughters welcome their mother on her first visit to London and quarrel over steamboat; a Chinese woman raps about being a Tiger Mother; an elderly Chinese woman recognizes that it isn’t the race that estranges, but the inability to tell the truth; an ethnic writer takes on Eastern mythology in a metaphoric quest to understand the anxiety of Western literary influence. Filled with humourous and heartening short stories, this anthology is a time capsule of how identities evolve and change with the times and places.
A light-hearted story, Beauty Queens of Bishan centers around stereotypical rich Indian families in Singapore, yet it does not leave out other parts of the community and how they all come together in the beauty parlours of the average-class heartland of Bishan. In Bishan, the busiest suburb of Singapore, thirteen small beauty parlours co-exist quietly, offering haircuts, bikini waxes and facials at no-nonsense prices. All that changes when a swanky new salon opens. D’Asthetique (Beauty is Skin Deep) is run by April Chua, the stylist to the stars. April’s plan for Bishan includes controlling her competitors through a new society, NAILSO (Neighbourhood Alliance of Independent Lifestyle Service Operators). The only person who dares to protest is the chubby Gurpreet Kaur, owner of Monty Beauty Spa. Both have clients in the upcoming Grand Glam Singapore Beauty contest. Will April’s shoe-in Candy Kang prove yet again why she is Singapore’s sweetheart? Or will Gurpreet’s client, Tara Chopra, prove a star on stage as well as in court?
Experience the pain, hope and love in the hearts of Filipinos everywhere, especially those making lives easier for strangers and those seeking greener pastures. They wear their identity with simultaneous pride and shame, knowing that while they may wish to go abroad, they will never leave their home behind completely. These stories explore heart-wrenching emotions from the archipelago, that shares more with the West than we realize.
In 2006, Desmond Kon died, and came back to life. This is better understood as a near-death experience (NDE). Fresh from studying world religions at Harvard, Desmond’s NDE in Somerville, Massachusetts, shared remarkable consistency with other documented NDE accounts, such as encountering otherworldly beings, altered time-space realms, and the classic tunnel of light. Post-NDE symptoms included paranormal sightings. Framed as a quasi-memoir, The Good Day I Died is constructed as a self-administered interview, allowing the account its moments of deep intimation. Completed with the aid of the Creation Grant from Singapore’s National Arts Council, The Good Day I Died represents Desmond’s most confessional writing, relating the story of his death, and his transformed life
after his return.
The inside story – plans, strategies, casualties, letters – of the crackdown on terrorist groups by the Philippines military with the support of elite US Special forces, with no details spared. The War on Terror is a book about terrorism — the al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf Group and their operations in southern Philippines — and includes photographs of letters written by terrorist commanders and by kidnapped American couple Martin and Gracia Burnham. The book follows the growth, movement and activities of the ASG, the Jemaah Islamiyah and the al-Qaeda and talks about how the military broke the triad of their operations through various operational plans and strategies that were implemented with the support
of US Special Forces, whose actual involvement in counter-terrorism operations in the Philippines is being detailed for the first time.
More than just about the issue of terrorism, the book will inform readers on the factors – social, political and
economic that abet terrorism in a struggling country such as the Philippines.
Archie is a struggling, hot-headed boy on a long, dull journey home. He’s carrying a mysterious bundle that he’d love to lose but can’t—when he tries to drop it, it squeals like a piglet and runs after him, bowling him over. Then Archie makes a choice that changes everything: with a surge of bravery, he enters a magical kingdom where four wise souls await him—a rhino, an owl, a donkey and a rabbit.
These new friends help Archie unpack his bundle and reflect on its contents. Each item (dice, cake, ball and headphones) represents a social ‘worry’ for Archie. By the journey’s end, Archie has fabulous new strategies for managing his stormy feelings, his bundle is empty and he skips home—light and free.
A time-travelling thriller combining the struggles from before and after.
Bukit Brown follows the gripping journey of Ji-won, lonely and lost in modern-day cosmopolitan Singapore, who time travels to nineteenth century British Malaya and finds her true self through experiencing the deplorable lives of migrant workers, the veiled enmity among Chinese secret societies and a lavish Peranakan
lifestyle.
