Six books by writers from Singapore, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with State of Emergency and Ponti.
Singapore's best-known novel abroad is Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians, a satire of the island's wealthy families that became a Hollywood film in 2018. Writing from the city-state appears in its four official languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Tamil. Colloquial Singlish, the local English mixed with words from other languages, turns up in dialogue and comic fiction. Much of the writing returns to the Malayan Emergency, the 1963 merger with Malaysia and independence in 1965.
Jeremy Tiang's State of Emergency traces a family through the Emergency years and after, taking in left-wing activism and detention. Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan's Sarong Party Girls is a comic novel, written in Singlish, about young women chasing husbands. Sharlene Teo's Ponti moves between the 1990s and 2000s through three women, with suburban school life and the local film world.
“Find a copy” goes to Bookshop.org. If you buy, we earn a small commission and independent bookshops get a share too.
Follows a family across decades of Malayan Emergency-era and post-independence Singapore, showing left-wing activism, detention and the politics behind the national story.
Moves between 1990s and 2000s Singapore through three women, showing suburban teenage life, humidity, schooling and the local film world.
Memoir of the founding prime minister covering colonial Singapore, Japanese occupation, merger with Malaysia and the road to independence.
Linked stories and episodes tracing ordinary lives and political undercurrents in Singapore from the 1960s into the modern city-state.
Satirical portrait of Singapore's wealthy elite, its food culture, old-money families and status anxieties, set largely on the island.
Comic novel of young Singaporean women chasing husbands, written in Singlish, showing nightlife, materialism and class in modern Singapore.
Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal North Korea Oman Pakistan Palestine Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia South Korea Sri Lanka Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Timor-Leste Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen