A girl who nearly meets with death while on board a plane from Paris to Marrakech; a boy who fills her arms with paper animals under the open skies of rural China; her doppelgänger whom she meets in the Middle East; a question she was once asked, and the answer she only finds three years after.

The Desire For Elsewhere takes you on an intimate journey to explore the interiors of the museum of the narrator's being, where otherwise ordinary artefacts reveal the stories they contain within. Travelling to the past, parallel planets, and the future, it tells a story of stories that explore the universal themes of love and loss, time and transience, and travel and wanderlust.

Enchanting and evocative, the tales of Agnes Chew transport you to places that run on lost time, missed opportunities, and deep-rooted aspirations. These are voyages fuelled by a sense of nostalgia, possibility, and hope. Ultimately, this debut collection raises fundamental questions on the ways in which we live our lives.
Agnes Chew is a writer, traveller and change-maker at heart. She is the author of The Desire for Elsewhere (2016, 2nd edition: 2017). Her writing has been published across Southeast Asia, the UK and the US; she has presented her work in Singapore and London. She is the sole creative nonfiction representative of the 2014-2015 National Arts Council Mentor Access Project. Her desire for elsewhere has led her to 57 countries and counting.

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