The year is 1914 and the fissures of war are spreading across Europe. A Russian cruiser Zhemtchug is sunk off the coast of Penang by the German warship, Emden.
A half-Oriental half-Russian baby is saved from drowning by a local fisherman and his son. An infant, with no name and without a birthplace, carried on the wind with no remembrance. This little miracle is given to the sisters at the Convent Light Street.
Named Agnès for she is holy and pure, she is raised as an orphan in Baby House. She stood out from an early age, a half-caste child, a keen learner who would trade cleaning and sewing chores for time spent with books. Agnès quickly learnt the unfairness of her birth.
Against the backdrop of the Second World War and the Malayan Emergency, Agnès’ life is a patchwork of injustice, betrayal, love and death, friendship and sisterhood. But buried deep within Agnès is loss and an intense yearning to belong.
When Agnès is offered a second chance at rebuilding her shattered life, will she learn to embrace it or will she still live in the shadows of her past?
Colony is an intricate tale of power struggle wrapped in the guise of a fable about a colony of ants. It follows the story of Darojak, a young queen ant whose colony has been destroyed, forcing her to seek refuge in another colony ruled by Queen Gegana. This colony is on the brink of extinction due to a shortage of worker ants. The aging Queen Gegana is producing more male ants, who are ultimately useless without a queen. Darojak finds love with Sunar, a charming male ant, and their mate solidifies her position as the new queen. Inevitably, Queen Gegana resorts to extreme measures to eliminate Queen Darojak, causing a deep divide within the colony. A fierce battle ensues, shaking the colony to its core.
Set in the subterranean world of insects, this work of fiction is an allegory for human society’s insatiable thirst for power. Through the allegory of ants, Colony invites readers to ponder the nature of power, love, and survival.
Jealousy, longing, betrayal, and faith simmer in this tantalizing collection of eleven short stories about Malayalee women in Singapore. Each stands at a crossroads in life, stirring a pot of nostalgia and desire as they prepare comforting dishes for those they love.
In the kitchens of the meticulous Anusha Menon, the fearless Chellamma, and the gentle Aysha Rahman, the scent of Kerala’s rich culinary heritage lingers in recipes passed down through generations and in spices carrying whispers of home. In another corner of the city, Lilykutty Mathews holds the last hours of her marriage tenderly, learning that endings have their own kind of hunger.
Across these kitchens and lives, no dish, however lovingly prepared, can quiet their deepest hunger, the hunger to love and be loved.
Katharina Bautista—or Katha—is thirty-seven years old. She has no money. No job prospects. No fiancé (a recent development). She’s a burden to her brother. And she’s frightened. But this might be a problem of her own making.
Meanwhile, Nick Malvar, lead vocalist of the up-and-coming indie band Word Warlords, has been in love with his best friend’s older sister since high school and has believed all this time that she’s way out of his league (and in love with her boyfriend, a surgeon, to whom she’s engaged). However, in a shocking turn of events, a bedraggled Katha appears at his doorstep and lets him know that none of this is true any more. She doesn’t know if she’s in love and she’s definitely not engaged (she’s still out of his league though).
Nick wants her. Katha has a thousand reasons not to want him back. Because what Katha needs is a fresh start—not an exciting whirlwind romance. But what about what Katha wants? After all, we know a woman may be made a fool, if she had not a spirit to resist.
Achoo, a bright and sweet but mischievous dinosaur, loves to run, explore the world, and climb trees. Never listening to his mother’s concerns, he roams around until one day a tree climb goes wrong. His mother roars out a warning; there would be no more adventures and no more climbing ever again for him.
Heartbroken, he tries to follow his mother’s words like a good son… until one day his mother does not return from the forest like she usually does. Fearing for his mother, but equally afraid to go against her threatening words, our brave dinosaur faces the greatest challenge of his young life. So, what does our little dino do?
What’s Inside:
- Beautiful, full-color illustrations that bring the dinosaur world to life
- Age-appropriate language perfect for read-alouds and early readers
- Simple life lessons that encourage curiosity, courage, and self-confidence
In 1967, a curious phenomenon has Singapore in its vice-like grip. Over 500 men end up in hospitals seeking treatment for a phantom condition—their manhood is shrinking.
Welcome to the koro epidemic, when real men go to great lengths to recover their virility—or what they thought they had lost.
Against this backdrop are three young men dealing with the mass hysteria. There is Su Tang, a newbie gangster operating in Chinatown. He falls in love with Yin, a hooker who belongs to Ang Hor Tiap, the only all-women gang known in Singapore. But she rebuffs his advances.
There is Wee Tiong, a young doctor recently returned from his medical studies in the UK. Yet to come out of his closet, he struggles to live up to his mother’s wishes for him to find a nice girl to settle down with before her death.
And there is James Yang, a young layabout conscripted into the army. Resentful of the regimented life at first, he finds his purpose in the machismo of guns and drills.
Comic and relatable, A Mild Case of Mass Hysteria explores how their lives – reflective of the different classes in Singapore – pan out in a young country which, too, has hang-ups about its shortcomings.
Lost in Florence, Filipina writer Isla Mendoza stumbles upon a mysterious bookshop on Via Lullina, a street that isn’t supposed to exist. Within its walls, she discovers an old book filled with enchanting love letters—and one addressed to her.
The letter is from Luca Rossi, a man Isla has never met. Too curious to let it go, she tracks him down, only to discover a grumpy Italian chef who thinks she is out of her mind. Destiny? Foretold by a magical letter? With love as the plot twist? No, grazie.
Drawn to the book for their own reasons, Isla and Luca begin an investigation. The more the pair try to resist, the more the book writes. What will happen when they reach the last page?
Emilia is dead.
There’s no escaping that fact. But the supernatural world is far more complex than it seems. In death, a rare opportunity arises: a chance at redemption, and a second shot at life. However, redemption requires effort.
For Emilia, that effort takes the form of becoming a Scare Agent, someone tasked with haunting the Living. Unfortunately, Emilia is terrible at it. Months of failure and her inability to frighten humans have made her the least productive Scare Agent on record.
Then, against all odds, when Emilia finally scares her first human… He ends up dying.
Now, not only does she have to face the unintended consequences of her actions, but also a shocking revelation. As accidental as his death was, hers wasn’t. Because Emilia didn’t just die, she was murdered.
Set against the growing pains of a nascent Singapore in the 1980s, 15 Grams chronicles the circumstances behind 18-year-old Gitanjali “Li Li” Mistry’s arrest after she is found with 15 grams of heroin, the minimum threshold for the mandatory death penalty. While Li Li’s family struggles to deal with the fate that has befallen their youngest, most beloved member, Li Li grapples with her demons in prison, likewise struggling to cope with her imminent execution—and the knowledge that she is innocent. As Li Li’s death sentence looms, she finds solace in her family’s unconditional love and the unlikely friends she makes in prison, strengthening her resolve to uncover the truth about herself, more than anything else, from her family before her time is up.
Equal parts tragic and hopeful, 15 Grams stands as both historical recollection and existential discovery—simultaneously transporting readers to a long-forgotten, more communal Singapore and taking them through the moral complexities of Li Li’s journey as she finds dignity in her pursuit of truth, and peace in her situation.
Lotte finds his friend’s state-of-the-art sex doll in wedding garb and, true to himself more than his friend, elopes to his hometown in Southern Thailand with her. Freshly divorced, he finds himself feeling a growing affection for Samsaen the sex doll. But when they arrive, a group of thugs mug Lotte and steal his lady love.
Meanwhile, back home, his friend Mep has managed to track down the couple’s whereabouts and is hot on their tail. He knows something that Lotte doesn’t: she is not inanimate.
Lying discarded in the woods, Samsaen gathers her sentience—and her strength, setting the stage for a high-stakes chase where no one is who they seem.
