Eleven-year-old Ying Xiong’s name means ‘hero’. And that’s what he wants to be. But what’s the best way to be a hero?
Ying Xiong finds it hard to navigate through his troubled growing-up years in 1950s Singapore. He has an absent father who left him for his home village in China. His mother has little time for him as she slogs hard all day to support their family. At first, he looks up to his Silat Road neighbour Dave, a mild police inspector who likes to harp on about the value of exercising patience and self-control. Then, an impressive senior officer John Wei turns up in his rough neighbourhood and shows him what it’s like to take action and get things done. When Xiong runs into a series of difficulties, he is bewildered about who he wishes to emulate and the kind of person he wants to become. As he stumbles through his choices and the paths to take, Xiong discovers what it means to be a real hero.
Little Hero’s Wish is a work of fiction inspired by real events from the childhood years of the author’s father in 1950s Singapore. It follows from Xiong’s journey in the award-winning and bestselling Little Hero, inspired by the author’s family’s lived experiences in post-war 1940s Singapore.
You’d do everything for your dad. But she’ll do anything.
The high life is over. Her business is bust.
Penniless, Genevieve Ho returns from Singapore to her wealthy but ailing elderly father in Fulham, London. She’ll care for him and rebuild their fractured relationship. That was the plan—until she meets his new hostile caregiver.
Her dad is kept on a tight leash by his caregiver, who is perfect in his eyes. His confusion worsens. He treats her like family, and starts mistaking her for his own daughter. Genevieve fights to reclaim her place. Instead, she becomes the unwanted, freeloading intruder.
But when a Chinese man is brutally attacked in East London, Genevieve is not the only one with something to lose. Someone is watching the house. Someone who knows the victim— and the caregiver. As dark secrets and past betrayals catch up with her, the truth is about to erupt.
There is little time left.
Genevieve’s dad is slipping away. Her family’s safety is at risk. But how do you fight someone who’s already won?
Before Sunrise meets Love Hard in this RomCom set on a walking tour of Manila, Philippines.
Sophia Eunice “Piayaya” Hermosa, (now former) Philippine history teacher and a believer of meant-to-be, is on a plane back home to Manila after being ghosted by her Canadian boyfriend (whom she uprooted her life for) just as she arrived in Vancouver, Canada.
Raphael Alfonso “Rafal” Herbert, urban housing architect and artist, is going home to his father’s homeland, Philippines, to chase after the girl who ghosted him—and convince her of his love.
By some miracle of the romance comedy gods, Sophia and Raphael meet on the plane bound for Manila and strike a bargain to help each other with their respective ghost-ers. Raphael will pretend to be her fiancé at her brother’s wedding and Sophia will drive him around the city to look for the girl he loves.
As they search for closure from their failed relationships and tour Manila along the way, it won’t be long until they find out that they’re exactly where they’re meant to be: with each other.
Wefada Marwan, an academic, is thrust into captaining her family’s shipping business. She must also face up to her nascent feelings for her much younger Algerian student, Elemine, which she initially tries to deny. However, as their romance blossoms, she starts remembering lessons from her grandparents’ marriage to navigate her own.
Fatimah, Wefada’s grandmother, too, fell in love with an Arab man—Ben Qortubi. He migrated to Malaysia, established their shipping business, and started a family with Fatimah. But tragedy struck during the Japanese invasion of Malaysia, silencing Wefada’s grandfather forever.
Will Wefada successfully navigate the choppy waters of looking out for her family and their business while finding love?
In The Prau with the Silent Soul, Faisal Tehrani explores transgressive love, intergenerational trauma, and most importantly, the Malayan people’s unbreakable bond with their sea, which can be a nightmare and a source of love and sustenance. This is a story that has emerged from the sea and that returns to it.
This collection of short stories celebrates the Merdeka Generation. These are the baby boomers born a little after the Second World War, following the heels of the Pioneer Generation. These Seniors experienced the development and growth of modern Singapore. They were the people who lived through four National Anthems: ‘God Save the King’, ‘God Save the Queen’, ‘Negara-Ku’, and ‘Majulah Singapura’. The majority of them had helped built this nation.
During the colonial period and pre-independent days, many Singaporeans were poor and were living in adverse conditions, without running water, electricity, and amenities. Before HDB flats were built, they had been living in kampungs. These shaped their mindset. Most of them struggled to work hard so that their children would not suffer as they had suffered.
In the 21st Century, this band of the population is in their seventies. New problems surfaced for them as their children became smarter than them, or some moved abroad. There are many MG Seniors without their children and grandchildren in this country. This collection attempts to highlight some of the issues facing this group who had to cope with such emotional issues, modern technology, and the fast pace of life in modern Singapore. They are an admirable group as they had the resilience to progress as this nation had progressed.
This book also celebrates the music industry of the 1960s and 70s, both locally and internationally.
Destiny Chen had her eyes set on working in the mental health field for as long as she could remember. @DestinyIzzaLeo, however, stumbles right into the accidental spotlight as a content creator. While she tries to juggle her life as a streamer alongside being a university student, she finds herself torn between passion and opportunity. However, she may not need to make that choice, as her online career is at risk of being short-lived due to her reputation becoming shrouded in controversy.
As the unofficial leader of the ‘Triple D’s’, one of the most well-known content creator groups in the space, @DawnGames is no stranger to the highs and lows of being in the public eye. He has been betrayed, disrespected, hunted, spoken ill of, and doubted by his peers and audience. While @DawnGames takes it in stride, Donovan Cider is left to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart each time.
Destiny and Dawn have never once crossed paths, but Dawn seems repelled by her charm.
Their best friends believe that they are made for each other. But Dawn is harboring a secret that could destroy and change everything they know about each other.
Will his friends be proven wrong, or is there more to Dawn and Destiny’s shared connection?
In late nineteenth century Tana Toraja, Indonesia, Minah, an orphaned shaman, makes a dangerous pact with a jinn, Siblis, promising to sacrifice someone she loves. As an orphan with no family, love is a mystery to her. When Minah meets and marries Pong Marno, she believes she’s finally escaped her fate, but their happiness is short-lived. On their wedding night, Pong Marno is murdered by a rival shaman, ensuring Minah fulfills her dark bargain.
Years later, in 1985, Julia, a Malaysian woman desperate to have a child, seeks Minah’s help. Minah performs a ritual that grants Julia the gift of motherhood, but what begins as a miracle quickly takes a sinister turn, drawing Julia into a world of ancient rivalries and dark magic in The Shaman’s Circle.
It is in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, in the 1950s, when Ah Lam is married off to Cheng Lei, the son of a wealthy merchant, to help improve her family’s situation as she is of age. Once settled in Surabaya, Ah Lam soon finds herself dealing with an abusive husband while raising her young children and running her own small restaurant to make ends meet during the extreme political and economic hardship of the 1965-66.
Meanwhile, Ming Zhu, Ah Lam’s daughter, befriends a wealthy Muslim Javanese entrepreneur family and falls for Arya, an aspiring scholar, whom she later marries despite her parents’ disagreement for their different cultural and religious backgrounds under the authoritarian New Order regime in the 1970s. Ming Zhu and Arya have fraternal twins, Fajar and Dido, and get divorced as the conservative Islamic culture grows.
Dido, as the female twin and a Peranakan woman, faces gender and cultural challenges as she is torn between her hybrid ethnicity and cultural roots while growing up in the disorienting Reformasi era and the May 1998 riots. She becomes a documentary filmmaker as her way to make sense of the current political upheaval and her own conflicted identity.
As the country is unravelling even further, how will these three generations of women find what they need when intergenerational trauma and family memories haunt their lives and ties to others?
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
We all play certain roles in life, at work or with family, which require us to suppress how we truly feel to perform our duties.
Set in London, the play revolves around the lives of two such young bachelors, Jack Worthing and Algernon Moncrieff, who decide to lead double lives to cope with the weights of their social obligations.
Jack becomes ‘Earnest’ to escape his country estate and win the heart of Gwendolen Fairfax. Algernon pretends to have a fictional invalid friend named ‘Bunbury’ to avoid family gatherings and responsibilities. Life takes a turn when their alternate identities collide, leading to humorous misunderstandings.
Through this entertaining satire, the story compels us to wonder how society rewards appearance and superficial acts over authentic living and seeking true happiness; making us question are we truly who we allow the world to see?
“He made me see what Life is, and what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both.”
At times, the scary exterior is just a cry for lots of love and understanding; and the Canterville Ghost is no different.
The Otis family purchased The Canterville Chase, a haunted castle in England. The castle is home to the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville, who has been haunting the castle for over three hundred years. To the Ghost’s horror, the new family was just not afraid of him; instead, they set about trying to get rid of him. What ensues is a hilarious cycle of practical jokes and pranks.
Until one day, sweet and sensitive Virginia Otis, the youngest daughter of the family, discovers the ghost’s hiding place. The ghost tells her his story and asks her for help. The key to the Ghost’s peaceful departure to afterlife, is in her innocent, childlike powers.
What does the Ghost ask? Will Virginia be able to do what he needs? Find out in the most endearing tale of kindness, friendship and forgiveness.
