The stories in this collection are works of personal gratification, nostalgia, and reverence and they serve as an homage to the author’s hometown and her favorite horror writers.
They take place in various timelines and are written as stories within stories ranging from a headless ghost that returns as a grim reaper, a bird-like creature on the loose, a were-tiger out to seek vengeance, a vampire that decimated an entire village and other restless paranormal entities that walk among us.
Catagory: Fiction
Whisper in the Wind
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.
The Heartsick Diaspora and Other Stories
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.
Beauty Queens of Bishan
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?
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.
Pride and Prejudice
‘He is a gentleman; I am a gentleman’s daughter; so far we are equal. ‘
Set among the English countryside gentry at the turn of the nineteenth century, Pride and Prejudice is a story of love, marriage, manners, relations, the pride that is derived from possessing wealth and the prejudice of social classes. In a sparkling comedy of manners that begins with the arrival of two highly-eligible bachelors, Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy in the neighbourhood, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging people based on first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships, gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life. Pride and Prejudice is Jane Austen’s masterpiece-an entertaining portrait of the way people behave in society, and of matrimonial theatrics and rivalries-and is timeless in its hilarity and honesty.