Recommended by the National Library Board Singapore and Ministry of Communications and Information
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A woman learns of a friend’s illness and wonders if she ever truly knew him. A boy who sees ghosts heeds the advice of a fortune-teller, with surprising consequences. A girl wakes up and realises everybody in her Bedok neighbourhood has vanished. From Cyril Wong, award-winning author of The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza, comes another beautiful book about characters in crisis, with two stories crossing intriguingly into creative autobiography.
“Better known for his award-winning poetry, Cyril Wong delivers a medley of prose. High notes of the collection include the titular story, apparently autobiographical, and Cinema, the wistful story of two people separated by wealth and class but united in loneliness.”
—Akshita Nanda, The Straits Times
“An eclectic collection of short stories that is original and often deeply moving.”
—Dave Chua, author of The Beating and Other Stories
“Cyril Wong’s largely character-driven stories demonstrate clearly how they are inspired, in each case, when a personality passes through a moment of crisis, as in the tales of R. K. Narayan. Whether his people are young or adult, female or male, gay or straight, there is always a struggle and a revelation. Sometimes there is no resolution. Cyril writes with insight and sympathy about people in a Singapore spectrum that readers can identify with.”
—Robert Yeo, playwright and author of The Adventures of Holden Heng
“Wong’s most recent work – and possibly his last – is a sensitive, introspective read, occasionally upsetting, but also enjoyable and surprisingly riveting…Literature fans should grab a copy of this book and pin it proudly on their support pole, perhaps to remind the prolific writer of the imminent loss in the local literature scene should he hoist the white flag.”
—Melissa Chang, npTribune
Cyril Wong is the Singapore Literature Prize-winning author of poetry collections such as Unmarked Treasure, Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light and Satori Blues, as well as a collection of strange short fables called Let Me Tell You Something About That Night. He has served as a mentor under the Creative Arts Programme and the Mentor Access Project, as well as a judge for the Golden Point Awards in Singapore.
A past recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist Award for Literature, he completed his doctoral degree in English Literature at the National University of Singapore in 2012. His books include poetry collections Tilting Our Plates to Catch the Light (2007) and The Lover’s Inventory (2015), the novel The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza (2013) and short fiction collection Ten Things My Father Never Taught Me (2014).
