Let's Give It Up for Gimme Lao!
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- Praise
- Book Trailer
- About the Author
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Finalist for the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize
Shortlisted for the Singapore Book Awards 2017 (Best Fiction Title)
Shortlisted for the Popular Readers' Choice Awards 2016 - English (Adult) Books CategoryLook inside the book
Get the E-book Listen to the audiobook“I don’t aspire to be nice. I do what is necessary to get what I want.”
Born on the night of the nation’s independence, Gimme Lao is cheated of the honour of being Singapore’s firstborn son by a vindictive nurse. This forms the first of three things Gimme never knows about himself, the second being the circumstances surrounding his parents’ marriage, and the third being the profound (but often unintentional) impact he has on other people’s lives.
Talented, determined and focused, young Gimme is confident he can sail the seven seas, but he does not anticipate his vessel would have to carry his mother’s ambition, his wife’s guilt and his son’s secret. Tracing social, economic and political issues over the past 50 years, this humorous novel uses Gimme as a hapless centre to expose all of Singapore’s ambitions, dirty linen and secret moments of tender humanity.
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“The plot wanders in an apparently artless, but in fact artful way... There’s a real sense of control here, and a consistent, organic voice...”
—Philip Holden, editor of Writing Singapore and a judge of the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2015 -
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Sebastian Sim grew up in a two-room HDB flat with parents who were part of the pioneer generation of independent Singapore.
Not one to shy away from the road less taken, he has travelled around the world to soak up different experiences and cultures, and tried his hand in diverse industries: a bartender at Boat Quay, an assistant outlet manager at McDonald’s, an insurance salesman, a prison officer in a maximum security prison, and a croupier in a casino.
He published three Chinese wuxia novels between 2004 and 2012, and his first English-language novel, Let’s Give It Up for Gimme Lao! (2016), was shortlisted for the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.
Cover Type: Paperback
Page Count: 320
Year Published: 2016
Size: 225mm x 152mm