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?
Catagory: Literature & Fiction
Cursed and Other Stories
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.
Bukit Brown
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.
Fall Baby
The truth of her own origins, as well as the deep, dark secret that enveloped the lives of her parents will change her world. Srikandi—who prefers to be called by her nickname, Siri—is a globe trotting conceptual artist. She is shy, a little introverted and inquisitive. She is also worldly, intelligent, free-spirited and the loneliest woman on the planet. Siri’s personal life, however, defies even her own imagination. Married young but now a widow with an adopted daughter, Siri is forced to confront her beliefs and understanding of family, self, and the world. Will she be able to reconcile with the violence in her parent’s past to move forward in the changing world?
A day in the life
Quietly devastating, subtly subversive, and wonderfully wry.
Quixotic nonconformists in small towns and young newly-weds trying to keep up with the times; a forlorn retiree helpless in the face of contemporary anger, and a middle-class woman’s bond with her maid. Fourteen well-crafted stories give us a sense of the daily life of a wide cast of characters. Hasan’s protagonists are, as always, inward-looking, and whimsical and vulnerable outliers. Where is their place in the new order, where
have they come from and where are they going?
Beast
It was always the same dream, a dream that began with darkness and blood. When Assistant Commissioner of Police Aditi Kashyap is called upon to solve a gruesome triple homicide, she is dragged into the terrifying world of the Saimhas-werelions-who have lived alongside humans, hiding amongst them, since ancient times. Faced with the incredulous, Aditi has no choice but to join hands with Prithvi, an Enforcer called in to hunt down this seemingly otherworldly murderer. But can Prithvi overcome the nightmarish burdens of his dark and violent past to unravel the mystery hidden deep within this secret world of werelions? Can he be trusted to save lives, or will he choose to serve a different, more powerful, master? Read on, as Aditi and Prithvi race through the dark underbelly of Mumbai-from quiet suburbs to gritty brothels, from forgotten colonial tunnels to the lights and glamour of the inner city-in search of a dangerous truth, in search of a monster.
Les Miserables
With breath-taking realism, Victor Hugo takes readers deep into the Parisian underworld and carries them to the barricades during the uprising of 1832. This dramatic tale follows the stories of the peasant Jean Valjean, Fontine the prostitute, Thenardier the rogue and the universal desire to escape the prisons of one’s own mind. Les Misérables is an extravagant spectacle that dazzles the senses even as it touches the heart.
Scream to the Shadows
Unconfined to a single theme, this new collection of twenty short stories by Halim offers five distinct worlds – the paranormal mysteries from ‘The occult world’, with its dark settings reveal supernatural existences in the characteristic Halim style. ‘Fragmented Minds’ open doors to the tales of the horrors of some twisted human minds driven by madness. Without the theme of supernatural, these instances of the human rationality falling apart evoke fear of a different nature. The third set of horrors is a reflection of our vulnerability, with its tales of how the technology can be destructive at times. ‘Graveyard Voices’ makes you align your thoughts with the author who wonders who all are watching is when we walk by a graveyard and what thrilling rides they could take us on. The final set unearths stories that are influenced by the richness of Malay myths and legends, dark beliefs that may go back hundreds if not thousands of years ago into primeval past.
Some are fastpaced, roller-coaster like even. Some are more leisurely. Some maybe scary like a haunted house ride while others less so, but in all the five different themes, you are guaranteed to Scream to the Shadows!
Crying Mountain
A moving tale of courage and love, set against the Zamboanga crisis in the Southern Philippines in the
1970s.
In Below the Crying Mountain, the Moro Rebellion that broke out in the Sulu archipelago in the 1970s, and that continues to wound the nation, is seen vividly through the lives of the mestiza Rosy Wright, the Tausug girl Nahla, the rebel leader Prof. Hassan, the soldier Capt. Rodolfo as well as in the quest of the book’s narrator. The personal is political as war fuels the clash of emotions, histories and cultures. The story traces the lives of Jolo residents Rosy France Wright, a half-American girl who elopes with a Muslim professor from Christian Zamboanga to Muslim Jolo, leaving behind her husband-without-ceremony, Omar Hassan, her best friend, Nahla, a Tausug girl and Jolo local, Captain Rodolfo, who becomes Nahla’s lover. The events take place against the backdrop of the escalation of communal and other tensions during the 70’s and 80’s. Through the eyes of the narrator the reader is able to follow the transformation of Jolo—from its former glory days of prestigious parties to the ushering in of a new era of more zealous religious observance.