小說

G*D IS A WOMAN

In Singapore, there is only one rule: be careful who you troll. Frustrated by the rigid, unforgiving system in which they try to make art, a bunch of irate artists start a fake petition to cancel Ariana Grande. Things get wildly out of hand when some Singaporeans take the petition so seriously that Ari’s upcoming concert comes under threat. 

In a whirlwind of competing petitions, frantic Zoom calls between Los Angeles and Singapore, and whispered conversations at the golf course, the campaign to save the concert comes up against the most powerful people in Singapore: the easily offended. 

From acclaimed playwright Joel Tan (Tartuffe: The Imposter, The Butterfly Lovers) comes G*d Is A Woman – a scathing satire on censorship, complaint culture, and the ridiculous outbursts of moral outrage that frequently reverberate across the Singaporean internet. Directed with gleeful irreverence by Ivan Heng, this audaciously funny new play will make you laugh until it hurts.

TARTUFFE: THE IMPOSTER

A wealthy family starts to unravel when the head of the household, Orgon, befriends Tartuffe — a charming, seductive con artist masquerading as a man of faith. Everyone else smells a rat, even as Tartuffe weasels his way into Orgon’s home, heart and bank account. What will it take for Orgon to finally see the light? Can unholy disaster be averted? Or will blind devotion win the day?

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Molière’s birth, Wild Rice’s Tartuffe: The Imposter remains trenchantly relevant today, in a world populated by scam artists and false prophets. With an incisive new script by Joel Tan and direction by Glen Goei, this is a classic satire on religious hypocrisy and a warning about the calamity that can follow when we turn a blind eye to the dark deeds of the “pious”. Desperately trying to untangle vice from virtue is a stellar ensemble cast led by Ivan Heng and Benjamin Chow.

We Saw Mountains gathers nine stories of human and non-human daring, where quotidian life is cracked open to possibilities of autonomy and re-imagination. A teen’s part-time job tests his integrity, a grieving elephant finds a new home by way of a contested river, and on an island a mountain appears, fully formed.

Through these visionary tales, Diana Rahim—whose stories have been featured in Best New Singaporean Short Stories and The Best of World SF—asks, can we do things differently? Can we imagine a different kind of life?

Step into this spellbinding collection and witness transformations both cosmic and everyday. Journey from the desert to the oasis, from drought to bloom, and return to our world with a rekindled faith in the possibility of becoming.

Winner of the PEN Translates award

From 1976 to 1989, Hai Fan was part of the guerrilla forces of the Malayan Communist Party. These short stories are inspired by his experiences during his thirteen years in the rainforest.

Struggling through an arduous trek, two comrades pine for each other but don't know how to declare their love; a woman who has annoyed all her comrades finally wins their approval when she finds a mythical mousedeer; improvising around the lack of ingredients, a perpetually hungry guerrilla makes delicious cakes from cassava and elephant fat. The rainforest may be a dangerous place where death awaits, but so do love, desire and hope.

Delicious Hunger is a book about the moments in and between warfare, when hunger is so palpable it can be tasted, and the natural world becomes an extension of the body. Deftly translated by Jeremy Tiang, Hai Fan's stories are about a group of people who chose to fight for a better world and, in the process, built their own.

Winner of Best Fiction Title for Singapore Book Awards (2016)
Winner of the Singapore Literature Prize for Fiction (2014)
Selected by The Business Times as a Top 10 Singapore book from (1965–2015)
Shortlisted for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s Internationaler Literaturpreis
Shortlisted for the Frankfurt Book Fair’s LiBeraturpreis
Longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award (2014)

Meet an over-the-hill pop yé-yé singer with a faulty heart; two conservative middle- aged women holding hands in the Galápagos, and the proprietor of a Laundromat with a penchant for Cantonese songs of heartbreak. Find out the truth about racial riot fodder-girl Maria Hertogh, now living out her days as a chambermaid in Lake Tahoe; a mirage of the Merlion as a ladyboy working Orchard Towers; and a high- stakes fantasy starring the still-suave lead of the 1990s TV hit serial, The Unbeatables.

Ministry of Moral Panic is an extraordinary collection and the introduction of a revelatory new voice. Heartfelt and sexy, the stories of Amanda Lee Koe encompass a skewed world fraught with prestige anxiety, moral relativism, sexual frankness, and the improbable necessity of human connection. Told in strikingly original prose, these are stories that plough the possibilities of understanding Singapore and her denizens.

　　尤今慣常以如刃的目光讀大地，以細膩的心思讀生活，再以璀璨的筆桿，，寫繽紛的世界。

　　她說：「小時看漫畫，常常看到牧牛的童子坐在牛背上吹笛子，因此把牛目為浪漫的象徵；年齡稍長，讀及牛的頌詩，又把牛當成是勞動的楷模。成長之後，背著行囊，足履四海，才發現牛和世間萬物一樣，沒有一個固定不變的『模式』。

　　同樣是雲，卻美醜不一。同樣是河，卻有悲有喜。同樣是泥，卻大好大壞。把囿限於模子之內的目光看世界，不但辜負了大地，也糟蹋了萬物。 」

　　《傷心的水》一書內收了一百篇袖珍小品，敘述了一百則喜怒哀樂的故事。人間有愛，萬物有情，即使是一滴水珠、一片樹葉，也有感覺，只要用心眼去體會，便能通過它們，聽到一條河、一棵樹的故事；而當小河匯人大海、小樹紮根於大地時，我們便也同時能夠聽到驚濤拍岸的澎湃、小樹紮根於大地時，我們便也同時能夠聽到驚濤拍岸的澎湃、根鬚入土的呢喃。

　　豆花不說謊。

　　當豆花那人投注了多少心力多少心思、放進了多少精神多少努力，豆花都以無聲的語言明明白白而又坦坦白白地說出來。

　　文字，也不說謊。 身為終生筆耕不輟學的人，尤今時時刻刻都在細心、虛心而耐心地聆聽她筆下的文字對她說話，分分秒秒都做好再次衝刺的；準備。

　　《豆花不說謊》一書，共分五輯，收錄了80篇小品文。

　　第一輯「愛的絲帶」，說了16則有關親情的小故事；第二輯「味蕾記憶」，藉著13道美味的食品窺探人生百態；第三輯「浮雲心情」寫的是11則足履天涯的趣聞；第四輯「百般滋味」讓讀者品嚐21則從砂礫與世界的第5節故事相讀得了第1957章的歌曲相讀。 80則故事，80樣心情。

　　80個感動，80種感悟。

　　生活圓融和諧，全因處處有愛。鑲嵌著「愛」的日子，不論是酸、甜、苦、辣、鹹，各有牽動人心處，就算是淡吧，也是足堪咀嚼的好滋味。

　　尤今以「愛心、耐心、恆心、信心」為原料，搓成堅韌亮麗的金絲銀線，以它們繡出一幅又一幅雋永的「文字圖畫」。

　　浮現在這幅色彩斑斕圖畫裡的，是觸動人心而又恆遠常新的親情、友情、愛情、師生情、主僱情、夫妻情、兩代情。本書總共收集了十三篇小說，包括了千來字的微型小說、三四千字的短篇小說和四萬餘字的中篇小說。

　　尤今以書中的小說來「練武習藝」，在創作方式和技巧上，在素材的選取和剪裁上，作了多種不同的嘗試，為她個人的小說創作開拓了一個新的面貌。

　　本書收錄了作者從80年代末至2011年創作的微型小說精選作品共48篇，反映了作者在不同的人生成長階段中對事物的不同體會和感受，其中大部分反映了現今社會中父母與子女之間親情密度的有待考量，人情的冷漠、社會的光怪百態。

　　同時附上四篇來自中國和本地作家、學者的評論，希望讀者們能從中對作品有更深一層的認識與了解。

作者簡介

　　艾禺原名劉桂嵐，新加坡作家協會副會長，世界華文微型小說研究會副秘書、世界海外華文女作家會員，創作體裁以微型小說和兒童文學為主，作品包括《困鳥》（短篇小說）、《風雲再起》（微型小說）、《艾禺禺的《花神》《最後一束小花》（小花本媽媽的故事）、《藍色小說》（《小花》（微小說）、《新花本》的小花本》（微小說）（微小說）、《新花本》（微小說》）的《新花本》）小說了《新本》（《白色媽媽》年小說）、《鏡子裡的秘密》（少年小說）和《天狼星遊戲事件簿》（少年小說）、《海魂》（短篇小說集）、《奇怪的畫像》（小飛魚讀本系列）、《窗內窗外》和《假書》（百果香系列-新加坡花園）、《大白小司庫》和《大小小女教育》和《大小書》和《小老師》和《小老師》）、《大白小小教師》和《大小書》和《小老師》和《小女孩》和《小老師》。主編作品：《逍遙曲》《城市的記憶》《城市的足音》，新加坡作家協會刊物《新華文學》編委。

　　《艾禺微型小說》曾獲選為 2006年「讀吧，新加坡」全民閱讀活動讀物之一。多次在文藝創作比賽中得獎。

　　曾任新傳媒華文戲劇組故事策劃、編審、編劇二十餘年，現為駐校作家兼自由撰稿人。

　　快樂，是有聲音、有形狀的；它無所不在；但是啊，許多人卻置若罔聞、視而不見！尤今相信，心裡有桃源，處處是桃源；而心中的桃源，來自人生的頓悟。借助《釋放快樂》這部小品文集，她希望能在各個不同的層面與廣大的讀者分享她個人釋放快樂之道。

　　《釋放快樂》一書是新加坡著名作家尤今的最新小品集，收錄了 61 則小品文。

　　全書共分五輯：第一輯《唯一選擇》，13 則故事全以親情和友情為中心，展現「人間有愛」的溫馨主題；第二輯《快樂點心》，暢述了 13 則足履天涯的旅遊故事，從沙礫中看世界，處啟都是閃亮的啟示錄；示》，敘述了 10 則有關教育的小故事，明確地傳達了個人的教學理念；第四輯《幸福指數》，透過 13 則趣味滿溢的真實故事，體現雋永的生活情趣；第五輯《逆風前行》，，12 則有關文化與人的評論和軼事。

　　這本書收集了五篇以青少年成長為主題的短篇小說。作者王德遠博士深入青少年的生活，了解他們的經歷與思想，將真實的故事化為文字，希望讓更多讀者可以走進青少年的心靈世界。 《月亮代表我的心》講述了一個高中男生的故事，他表面生活快樂，心裡卻充斥著被排擠的不愉快。里外不合的成長矛盾，讓他的生活多了許多不為人知的無奈，卻也反映了現代青少年強說愁的現象。 《邊緣少年》則講述了青少年在父母離婚的家庭裡出現的問題，故事主角後來懸崖勒馬，重新得到同學的認可與接受。 《日記》描述了一位父親為了撫養孩子而忍辱負重的經歷。故事告訴我們不要以主觀意識判斷事物，因為個人的成見往往造成誤解，尤其是青少年在心智尚未完全成熟的時候，更是如此。 

　　本書宣揚真情、誠懇以及正面的處世待人態度。作品的特色是文字淺白，內容深入淺出，不說教，而是用故事啟發智慧，適合青少年閱讀。

　　這本書收集了五篇以青少年成長為主題的短篇小說。作者王德遠博士深入青少年的生活，了解他們的經歷與思想，將真實的故事化為文字，希望讓更多讀者可以走進青少年的心靈世界。 《月亮代表我的心》講述了一個高中男生的故事，他表面生活快樂，心裡卻充斥著被排擠的不愉快。里外不合的成長矛盾，讓他的生活多了許多不為人知的無奈，卻也反映了現代青少年強說愁的現象。 《邊緣少年》則講述了青少年在父母離婚的家庭裡出現的問題，故事主角後來懸崖勒馬，重新得到同學的認可與接受。 《日記》描述了一位父親為了撫養孩子而忍辱負重的經歷。故事告訴我們不要以主觀意識判斷事物，因為個人的成見往往造成誤解，尤其是青少年在心智尚未完全成熟的時候，更是如此。 

　　本書宣揚真情、誠懇以及正面的處世待人態度。作品的特色是文字淺白，內容深入淺出，不說教，而是用故事啟發智慧，適合青少年閱讀。

　　《悅讀與品讀》共收錄五篇短篇小說／微型小說以及八首詩歌。

　　為了讓學生有更廣泛的涉獵，本書收錄的作品，涵蓋不同時期、不同地理的文學創作。短篇小說/微型小說方面，收錄了五四時期的《孔乙己》、中國當代小說《陳小手》、港台代表作品《像我這樣的一個女子》、以馬來西亞為故事背景的小說《拉子婦》以及本地青少年小說《回不去的候車站》；詩歌方面，共有四首古典詩篇，包括兩首唐渡詩——李白的《唐渡詩——李白的《唐渡詩》——李白的《唐渡詩》——李白的《唐渡詩》——李白的《唐渡詩》——李白的《唐渡詩》荊門送別》和杜甫的《春夜喜雨》、兩首宋詞－蘇遼的《水調歌頭》（明月幾時有）和李清照的《如夢令》（昨夜雨疏風驟）以及四首現當代詩歌，包括徐志摩的《偶然》、 南下的《珍珠岩》中的《珍珠項鍊》和《珍珠光傳》創作詩窗。

　　《風箏在雲裡笑》收錄了六則短篇小說，主角清一色是旅居或定居他國的異鄉人。

　　在地球村的概念下，因為婚姻和工作的關係而旅居異鄉者遍布全球。不同國籍的人，懷著迥然而異的生活觀和價值觀，旅居於全然陌生的國度。他們在不斷地掙扎和妥協、適應和調整之下，在異國的犄角旮旯裡，留下了閃爍的淚光、留下了晃動的笑影。有者如魚得水地生活得有滋有味、有者卻難以適應而度日如年、有者呢，覺得「梁園雖好，不是我家」而引頸企盼歸國的日子……這一則一則笑中寓淚的真實故事，清楚地讓讀者看到了變化莫測的人生、看到了複雜多變的人性。

　　《紅樓夢》本名《石頭記》，是華文世界最重要的小說之一。本書改編自這部經典，是無材補天的頑石在人間的傳記。石頭化為賈寶玉，經歷了與林黛玉「木石前盟」和薛寶釵「金玉良緣」的愛情婚姻悲劇，目睹了十二金釵等女子的悲慘人生，體驗了富貴家族由盛而衰的巨變，並對人生有了深刻的感悟。 《紅樓夢》結構宏偉，打破了過去的所有傳統寫法，全書四百多個人物，其中賈寶玉、林黛玉、薛寶釵、王熙鳳等都讓人印象深刻，無論是人物性格的多面性、心理描寫和細節刻畫，還是其中的詩詞和情節設計，都非常精彩。

　　本書是《紅樓夢》中學新泛讀叢書版本的上冊，由紅學有所鑽研的本地作家、前教育工作者周德成改編。上冊分十章，保留了原著開頭至晴雯撕扇（31回）的主幹情節和精彩篇章，除了使用更淺白易懂的語言改寫，也嘗試保留曹雪芹的原文字魅力。每章還擬有不同的小標題，方便閱讀，其後更附帶“讀後學一學”與“讀後想一想”，幫助青少年讀者理解內容，也鼓勵他們讀後思考。此外，讀者可掃碼下載精選詩詞英譯，豐富閱讀體驗。

　　本書人物畫像和情境插圖由新加坡著名畫家黃展鳴精心繪製，加強了視覺效果，讓青少年更容易投入和欣賞。

Shezlez the Self-Proclaimed is an absurdist story about a poor man’s ambition to organise his own political party in an unnamed country characterised by moral apathy, poverty and heartless bureaucracy. Upon his first speech, so rousing as to attract the attention of the Progressive Party, Shezlez finds himself embroiled in a corrupt scheme of deceit and backstabbing in the leadup to the upcoming mayoral elections. A Machiavellian tale of political ambition, Shezlez the Self-Proclaimed examines the fickleness of loyalty, and interrogates the perennial question of whether the pursuit of power, no matter how idealistic its genesis, can ever remain a noble quest.

There are obscure emotions that reside in every one of us, where language cannot reach, because its waters are too deep. A lot was going on in 1979. Most Malay villages were long gone or in their dying days. Malay rock began its unstoppable rise with the emergence of its first influential rock band, while drugs were just across the street. And on one Friday night that year, during the final months in the life of the once major Malay village of Engku Aman in Geylang Serai, 15-year-old Alia left her house and vanished without a trace. In the aftermath of her disappearance, the protective layers in the lives of three other young people who knew her begin unpeeling as they struggle to make sense of her disappearance and their lives in a period of immense social and cultural change.

A poignant coming-of-age historical novel that captures what it might have felt like to live in Engku Aman, for which there is little formal historical accounting. While there are many historical novels in Sing Lit that centre the Chinese Singaporean experience,  Neverness  centres the Malay experience and immerses readers in the heyday of Malay rock. Suitable for both young adults and adults.

Police sergeant Hafiz lies in a coma after a gunshot to the head. The investigation by Internal Affairs uncovered a game of Russian roulette gone wrong, and the case is now closed. But there are rumbles of concern in the Ministry, and middle-aged civil servant Boon Teck—assisted by young colleague Nithya—is dispatched to take another look.

Suffused with mystery and intrigue, After the Inquiry steps into the mirror maze of Singapore’s bureaucracy, where silvered surfaces hide troubling secrets, and those who search for the truth risk getting lost…

“Exceptional... an unsettling insight into bureaucratic cruelty, and the best thing I've read from Singapore for years and years.”
—Peter Guest, Acting Business Editor, WIRED

Winner, Book of the Year & Best Literary Work, Singapore Book Awards 2024

Ram has been ignored and dismissed his entire life. His parents patronise him, his older brother belittles him, his class pretends he doesn’t exist, and he is certain he will fail his impending A-Levels. The only good part of his life is Kass, a fellow outsider he has known since childhood. But when the bruises on Kass from her abusive father get worse and worse, Ram decides to don a mask and frighten him into changing his ways. After his scare tactic goes fatally wrong, the mask he wore calls out to him again to clean the city's filth.

Neo-noir thriller meets coming-of-age mystery, catskull explores the violence inherent in an unforgiving city and what it does to the people who inhabit it. It complicates questions of what is right, what is lawful, and who pays the price in the quest for justice.

"Myle Yan Tay’s debut novel is a sharp, dark look at the education system as a potential site of violence and harm. This is writing that doesn’t flinch and dares the reader to sit with and in discomfort while excavating deeply existential questions about what defines who we are as a society and the individuals who build (or break) it."
—Pooja Nansi, Author of We Make Spaces Divine

This book contains references to topics such as physical violence, racially insensitive language, discrimination and abuse of migrant workers, and themes of sexual assault, sexual abuse and paedophilia. While the content of this novel is fictional, these topics reflect real issues.

We recognise that the ways in which readers might respond to and deal with these issues may vary, as our relationships to these topics are unique. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed or not in the right headspace to experience the story, do put the book down and talk to someone about how you feel, or consult resources printed at the back of the book.

When 7-year-old Anna told a lie to get out of trouble, she didn’t expect her older sister to go missing. Faced with her mother’s wrath and riddled with guilt, Anna tries to make amends as she grapples with the aftermath of her actions.

Until her daughter’s body is found, Su Lai refuses to believe that she has simply disappeared. Turning to a medium as her obsession to find her daughter escalates, the family is sucked into a web of pain and deceit that forces them to confront their own measures of loss. A masterful debut by Jinny Koh, The Gods Will Hear Us Eventually boldly interrogates the extent of familial love and expectation while unravelling the complexities of hope and redemption.

Hailed as “the definitive Singaporean novel”, this new edition of Heartland is accompanied by a new preface by author Daren Shiau and a publisher’s foreword that contextualises the novel’s imprint on the Singapore literary landscape since its first publication in 1999.

An iconic work, Heartland explores the paradox of rootedness and rootlessness in fast-changing Singapore. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows the years of Wing Seng as he leaves school and is conscripted into full-time National Service. As Wing tries to reconcile his past with his future amid transitions through different phases of life, he finds meaning in his intense attachment to his surrounding landscape. Yet, as relationships and the years slip by, Wing is forced to question his own certainties and the wisdom of the people he values.

Set in Singapore’s heartland at the turn of the century, Heartland’s capturing of the texture of everyday life provides the backdrop essential to the bildungsroman’s exploration of identity, belonging and connection in an increasingly urbanised Singapore.

Longlisted for the 2013 Frank O'connor International Short Story Award

Malay Sketches is a collection of stories that borrows its name from a book of anecdotes by colonial governor Frank Swettenham, describing Malay life on the Peninsula. In Alfian Sa’at’s hands, these sketches are reimagined as flash fictions that record the lives of members of the Malay community in Singapore. With precise and incisive prose, Malay Sketches offers the reader profound insights into the realities of life as an ethnic minority.

Corridor is a collection of short stories all set in present-day Singapore. With unsentimental clarity and heartbreaking honesty, Alfian Sa’at writes about HDB dwellers – students, housewives and factory workers, whose lives begin to unravel once they discover that happiness is a fragile thing in a country obsessed with progress and success.

The characters in each story find themselves in situations that offer them a ticket to hope and change: A video camera transforms the way a resentful daughter sees her widowed mother. A married couple receives free holiday tickets just when their luck seems to have run out. A girl encounters a transvestite on an MRT train ride who tells her that she looks like a famous singer. And a man enters a discotheque after a bitter divorce and re-learns the terror of falling in love all over again.

Rich in authentic detail, with a sensitive ear for the vernacular, Corridor paints an elegiac, revealing portrait of contemporary Singaporeans who exist along the city’s corridors – haunted by lost loves, irrevocable childhoods and a deep longing to be free.

Corridor won the Singapore Literature Prize Commendation Award in 1998.