In Borderline Citizen Robin Hemley wrestles with what it means to be a citizen of the world, taking readers on a singular journey through the hinterlands of national identity. As a polygamist of place, Hemley celebrates Guy Fawkes Day in the contested Falkland Islands; Canada Day and the Fourth of July in the tiny U.S. exclave of Point Roberts, Washington; Russian Federation Day in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad; Handover Day among protesters in Hong Kong; and India Day along the most complicated border in the world.
Forgoing the exotic descriptions of faraway lands common in traditional travel writing, Borderline Citizen upends the genre with darkly humorous and deeply compassionate glimpses into the lives of exiles, nationalists, refugees, and others. Hemley’s superbly rendered narratives detail these individuals, including a Chinese billionaire who could live anywhere but has chosen to situate his ornate mansion in the middle of his impoverished ancestral village, a black nationalist wanted on thirty-two outstanding FBI warrants exiled in Cuba, and an Afghan refugee whose intentionally altered birth date makes him more easy to deport despite his harrowing past.
Archives: Books
#HAPPYxCOOL
#HAPPYxCOOL is not one of the usual guidebooks that pretends to know the ultimate way to happiness. The work is not fixated on the personal gathering of as many feelings of happiness as possible and does not deal with happiness or the way to happiness per se. In contrast to the conventional guidebook literature, the authors rather concentrate pragmatically on the many subjective and objective obstacles that usually stand in the way of happiness. They want to motivate and assist the reader to work actively and pro-actively on themselves.
In #HAPPYxCOOL the authors don’t shy away from discussing many unconventional topics such as the important issue of sexuality and happiness, adultery, bad or no sex, or a partner’s obsession with pornographic movies. In a separate section, another influential aspects is discussed in some detail: the conditions at a person’s workplace. This includes, amongst others, career unhappiness, unhappiness caused by toxic co-workers or a disliked boss, excessive work burden, a lack of recognition and being underpaid.
The authors give great importance to the “freedom of mind” and the concept of “being cool”, thus inspiring the reader to free themselves from the constraints of happiness in a way that could be called “cool”.
Lockdown Lovers
Lockdown Lovers is a five-part love story set in lockdown conditions in two regions, Asia and Europe.
In Part I, set in Hong Kong and China, forty-something academic John Ryan goes to the local 24/7 McDonalds every day to record events around him. We also get regular updates and reflections on the time of lockdown from Phoebe Ho, Kwok-ying and a pangolin. Phoebe is a twenty-something Hong Kong activist and recently elected local councilor, Kwok-ying is a government health official, and the pangolin is one of the mammals reported as being at the root of the virus. In Part II, John, Phoebe and Kwok-ying have all had to go into quarantine as they have picked up the virus. John and Phoebe grow closer in unique lockdown conditions. Part II ends on the night before their passionate encounter in Phoebe’s quarantine quarters. Part III is set in lockdown conditions in Ireland, Europe. John’s parents are in the vulnerable category and have been ordered to stay in their homes. John tells no one but his parents that he has returned. He delivers groceries and medicine to his parents’ porch but the pain is too much when he sees them staring at him from twenty feet away behind the porch door. In Part IV, John has come back to Hong Kong from Ireland and is living on his own. Phoebe is caught up in events taking place in Hong Kong. Kwok-ying still sends in his witty comments about the Government. Part V takes place in Hong Kong and China two years after the first outbreak. Each character has moved on, and the pangolin is flourishing.
In this pandemic-ridden world, this novel reminds us how human contact will never cease to be mankind’s saving grace through the darkest times.
The Votive Pen: Writings on Edwin Thumboo
Born of Tamil and Teochew parents, Edwin Thumboo embraced the Protestant faith late in his life. He has a self-confessed fetish for Yeats and Pound and yet completed his doctoral thesis on post-colonial African poetry. He taught himself the Ramayana and I-Ching but found traces of the Odysseus in the shadows of the Merlion. He is brusquely vocal about poetry with a purpose and yet appears a hopeless romantic in his poems about his wife. What happens when a mind which is such a melting pot of brilliant ideas and contrary emotions tries to unscramble
the identity of a country like Singapore which is complex, multiracial, has known a fierce economic growth that has often elbowed aside everything else? The Votive Pen sets out to see Edwin Thumboo’s poetry-steadily and see it whole-without the intervening static of earlier critical writing and with
an intense alertness to the text.
The Secrets of the Sakura Girls
Aged fifteen, Aoki was sold by her father and shipped to Singapore from Japan, where she was bought into the world of prostitution. In a chance encounter with Reverend Harry Gilmore and his nine-year-old son Rupert from England, she finds herself drawn to their domicile life. Indomitable, empathetic and resolute, she is determined to break free of her life of prostitution and live the life she has always dreamt of. Against the backdrop of the savage decapitation of one of Aoki’s Chinese customers, Aoki and Harry’s feelings forge themselves into an unexpected bond. Meanwhile, detective superintendent Karupan, of the island’s police, strives desperately to solve the crime and fend off possible religious riots. In a race against time, will the dreadful crime be solved and will Aoki and Harry’s budding emotions grow into something permanent?
At Night We Are Dancers
This novel spanning seven decades documents the life of Tomas Franco “Cocoy” Sabater and his ascent to becoming one of the Philippines’s most callous vigilante assassins. Punctuated by news clippings from different generations, essays and
accounts from a perceptive journalist, internal monologues, a short children’s story from a failed novelist, and a lingering homage to ballet and kundiman, the story progresses in a non-linear fashion, conscientiously dissecting Sabater’s tumultuous pursuit of reprisal as he tries to fix his disintegrating relationship with his dying wife and growing daughter. At Night We Are Dancers is a story of love and family amidst ever-changing political milieu, as well as understanding existence and purpose, but, above all, embracing redemption in its countless forms.
Find Your Creative Mojo
Josh Langley, knows how important it is to find your voice and explore your passions. When he did, his life changed!
In this soul rattling manifesto, he delivers the untold truth about why it’s so important to express yourself. This is the perfect call to arms for anyone wanting to unleash their creative spirit, or simply find the confidence to do something different.
A humorous and quirky mix of anecdotes, insights, illustrations and inspirational quotes, Find Your Creative Mojo is the perfect companion for any aspiring creative soul. This is the book that people will want to pick up again and again to inspire them to find their creative voice, or even just to take that first brave step.
And Softly Go the Crossings
In this collection of short stories, Singapore Literature Prize-winner Danielle Lim probes the unseen changes which take place in the human psyche and their impact on the textures of life. Weaving through pain and healing, beauty and darkness, these silent crossings of the human heart and mind are deep and formidable. Yet they often go unnoticed due to their quiet, subtle nature. From a man struggling to bridge the distance between him and his father as his father dies, to the changes in the human psyche
when people are pit competitively against one another, these stories seek to draw out the emotional and psychological threads which form the tapestry of lived experience.
With its portraits of love and loss, loneliness and heartache, hope and healing, And Softly Go the Crossings challenges the reader to encounter human connectedness through soft, yet powerful, inner rhythms.
Battulga: Up Close and Personal
is is the authorised biography of the current President of Mongolia, Khaltmaa Battulga.
Battulga and the author studied together in college. At that time, Tulgaa, as his friends fondly called him, was sewing jeans, selling records and merchandizing. Then he went on to participate in sports and won the world championship in Sambo wrestling and became World Champion, while working at the branch of the city’s Craftsmen’s Committee.
He went on to wear many hats of accomplishments in his life. He started a business that expanded into the Yellow Taxi Service, organised a lottery called Millionaire, opened a disco club and the first ever supermarket in Mongolia. With the advent of privatisation, he obtained big ventures like the Bread and Candy Factory, the Meat Company Impex and the Bayan Gol Hotel and matured into a major businessman known throughout the country. Since then, he was elected into the parliament three times, where he served as Minister for Road and Transportation as well as Minister for Industry and Agriculture, led the Mongolian Democratic Union and became President of the Mongolian Judo Wrestling Association. He exerted substantive effort to become the first World Judo Champion born in Mongolia.
Despite his successsful ventures, he has always been a secretive person. It is difficult to hear even a few words from his mouth. Who is Khaltmaa Battulga actually? He has numerous followers and just as many fierce critics and has always been in the attention of journalists who have sometimes turned him into a subject of controversy on mass media. What does he really want? What has he so consistently been fighting for?
Based on exclusive interviews with the man himself, enriched by objective facts and events that the author has witnessed, read on as the author attempts to give the readers a better understanding of the character of the man who built the gigantic statue of Chinggis Khan on horseback and initiated an eco-town named Great Maitra, and shares what he has been up to recently.
The Genealogy of Kings (Sulalatus Salatin)
The Genealogy of Kings (Malay: Sulalat al-Salatin or Sejarah Melayu), is a literary work that gives a traditional interpretation of the origin, evolution and demise of the great Malay maritime empire, the Malacca Sultanate. The work which was composed sometime between the 15th and 16th centuries, is considered one of the finest literary and historical works in the Malay language.
In 2001, The Genealogy of Kings was listed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme International Register. The work covers the founding of Melaka and its rise to power; its relationship with neighbouring kingdoms and distant countries; the advent of Islam and its spread in Melaka and the region as a whole; the history of the royalty in the region including battles won or lost, marriage ties and diplomatic relationships; the administrative hierarchy that ruled Melaka; the greatness of its rulers and administrators, including the Bendahara Tun Perak and Laksamana Hang Tuah.