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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.

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.

　　「我的一隻耳朵聽不見，

　　但還是可以聽到世界的聲音……」

　　本書是新加坡作家艾禺繼《不見了的藍色氣球》和《沉睡天使》後的最新少年小說。小說主角是黃小甜，內容包含五個篇章：《失落的豆沙餅》《來，我們一起為貓慶祝生日》《特別的我，你懂嗎？ 》《兩個甜點》和《記憶盒子》。  

　　黃小甜從小右耳失聰，但她卻沒有因為自身的缺陷而悲觀著，反而很積極地面對周遭的事。在成長的歲月裡，在媽媽辛苦經營的小甜點店內裡，她遇到了來自四面八方的人，他們有些是顧客，有些是遞送員，有些更是失去聯繫很久的親人。每個出現的人都有屬於自己的故事。

　　為了讓新加坡學生通過閱讀符合本身語文水平的讀物，培養閱讀能力，並加強閱讀理解能力，艾禺特別參照新加坡教育部的華文教材詞彙，創作了這部少年小說。

作者簡介

　　艾禺，新加坡作家協會副會長，世界華文微型小說研究會秘書、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）、《艾禺微型小說》《最後一束康乃馨》《心中的火車》（微型小說）、《媽媽的玻璃鞋》《鏡子裡的秘密》《天狼星遊戲事件簿》《不見了的藍色氣球》《沉睡天使》《那間小小的、小小的甜點店》（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》《假裝》（百果香系列：繪本花園）、《大明偉和小小熊》《我們一家人》《神秘的任務》《給你一個驚喜》（新加坡教育部課程規劃與發展司——歡樂夥伴高級華文二年級小圖書）等等。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。