![]() ![]() The novels of Catherine Lim-long deemed the doyenne of Singlit for her prolific oeuvre that explores traditional Chinese-Singaporean culture-have been published in the UK since the 1990s. ![]() These certainly aren't the first Singaporean authors to reach a broader audience. Last month Amazon's Little A publishing imprint brought out Kirstin Chen's Bury What We Cannot Take, a novel that follows a family's escape from Mao's China to Hong Kong. ![]() Its first publications included Isa Kamari's The Tower, a novel about an architect reflecting on his life's work, which had won the prestigious Cultural Medallion in 2007 and the two-time Singapore Literature Prize-winner Cyril Wong's The Last Lesson of Mrs De Souza, a poignant tale of a teacher, her student's confession of homosexuality and its tragic consequences. Last spring the Singaporean independent publisher Epigram Books established a London-based imprint to launch its local authors in the UK. There is change afoot, however, as an increasing number of Singaporean novels and voices gain passage to distant shores. ![]() With its strict laws-including caning as a punishment -its fondness for obedience and dislike of chewing gum, the city state is generally more noted for its eccentric conservatism, wealth and supreme efficiency than for its literary arts. ĭisneyland with the death penalty" is how William Gibson memorably described Singapore in 1993. ![]()
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