Blogs in April 2020

The Dwarf 11th April 2020

The dark side of South Korea’s “”economic miracle”” emerges in The Dwarf, Cho Se-hui’s enormously popular and critically acclaimed work. First published in 1978, it speaks to the painful social costs of reckless industrialization, even as it tellingly portrays...

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Lost Names 11th April 2020

In this classic tale, Richard E. Kim paints seven vivid scenes from a boyhood and early adolescence in Korea at the height of the Japanese occupation, 1932 to 1945. Taking its title from the grim fact that the occupiers...

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Following the Wrong God Home 11th April 2020

In modern-day Singapore, a successful society upheld by stern government and a respectful population, a young woman is about to break all the rules. Yin Ling, enigmatic, beautiful, and engaged to the wealthy, politically ambitious Vincent Chee, falls in...

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The Song of Silver Frond 11th April 2020

One morning in Singapore more than 50 years ago, a wealthy, respected, handsome Chinese patriarch, head of a large household of three wives and many children and grandchildren, takes a walk by a cemetery. There, a young village egg-seller, Silver...

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The Red Pavillion 11th April 2020

Liz Hammond and her mother Blanche are returning to the rubber plantation they were forced to abandon at the outbreak of war. The beautiful Malayan jungle and exotic estate of her childhood have remained in Liz’s heart even after...

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