Support Local: 8 Singapore book titles to check out in 2023

The Fraud Squad by Kyla Zhao (January 2023)

Credit: BERKLEY

1/8

Clinching a rare deal from Berkley, debut author Kyla Zhao’s The Fraud Squad is about a working-class woman who infiltrates Singapore’s high society, revisiting a trope that has proved successful with Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians (2013).

Samantha Song works in a drab public relations firm, but this all changes after she meets Timothy Kingston, the disillusioned son of one of Singapore’s elite families.

Her dream is to write for a high-society magazine, and Timothy and Samantha’s wealthy co-worker Anya Chen appear to offer her a path. The question is: How far will Samantha go before she loses herself?

Fiction/Berkley Books/Paperback/368 pages/$19.50

Lost Treasure Of The Lanfang Republic by Tan Lip Hong (January 2023)

Credit: EPIGRAM BOOKS

2/8

A finalist for the 2022 Epigram Books Fiction Prize, Tan’s tale takes readers from Singapore to Hong Kong, then Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur and West Kalimantan in search of a priceless treasure.

Entrepreneur Hector Yan is in a race against time, his path mirroring that of his famous late uncle who was obsessed with uncovering a lost treasure in the jungles of Borneo. A wrong move could lead to his enemies uncovering an explosive secret that could change the world.

Lost Treasure Of The Lanfang Republic is Tan’s third novel, after The Russian Pigeon (1987) and The Singapore Squint (1992).

Fiction/Epigram/Paperback/440 pages/$26.90

No Wonder, Women by Carissa Foo (February 2023)

Credit: PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE SEA

3/8

A collection of short stories about women’s relationships with other females and how they love one another.

Two women bond over a balloon cactus. A mother steals glances at her teenage daughter in the rear-view mirror. A bride misses her best friend on the eve of her wedding. Each woman in these stories loves fiercely and feels deeply, but must learn to do so without unloving herself.

Foo is the author of two novels, If It Were Up To Mrs Dada (2018) and What We Learned From Driving In Winter (2022).

Fiction Anthology/Penguin Random House SEA/Paperback/178 pages/$22.90

Claiming Susan Chin by Tham Cheng-E (April 2023)

Credit: EPIGRAM

4/8

When a plane plummets into the Korean demilitarised zone, all but one passenger on board is killed. The lone survivor: Susan Chin, a 16-year-old Singaporean girl with Down syndrome.

Her account of events is quickly dismissed by the authorities. But claims investigator Jean Wan befriends Susan, uncovering a version of events that involves magic mushrooms, a dead girl, and an unusual bond between Susan and her father.

Tham is the author of Surrogate Protocol (2017) and Band Eight (2018), and the father of two boys, the younger of whom has Down syndrome. Claiming Susan Chin was longlisted for the 2022 Epigram Books Fiction Prize.

Fiction/Epigram/Paperback/352 pages/$26.90

The Singapore I Recognise by Kirsten Han (May 2023)

Credit: ETHOS BOOKS

5/8

Journalist and activist Kirsten Han writes in her book about her decade of work, illuminating a different Singapore than the one most people know.

She interrogates the contradictions in the way the Republic is held up as a model nation to the world while maintaining the death penalty, a practice she has been calling for the abolishment of since 2010.

Written in the form of essays, The Singapore I Recognise is the point of view of one of the country’s foremost activists. It is an insider look at the obstacles civil society here faces when attempting to shine a line on those whose perspectives tend to fall through the cracks.

Essays/Ethos Books/Paperback

Gardens At Phoenix Park by Wong Souk Yee (June 2023)

Credit: EPIGRAM

6/8

Wong’s second novel is a character study of three people struggling against political oppression.

Min Chan, Shu Peng and Martin live in a state that considers no aspect of a citizen’s life too private to escape intervention. And each of them, over five decades, chooses different paths of resistance.

Wong’s first novel, Death Of A Perm Sec (2016), won the 2018 Singapore Literature Prize for Fiction. She is a former political detainee under 1987’s Operation Spectrum and contested the 2015 General Election as a member of the Singapore Democratic Party.

Fiction/Epigram/Paperback/288 pages/$26.90

Catskull by Myle Yan Tay (July 2023)

Credit: ETHOS BOOKS

7/8

A 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.

Ram has been ignored and dismissed his entire life, and he is certain he will fail his impending A levels. The only good part of his life is Kass, so when the bruises on her from her abusive father get worse, he decides to don a mask to frighten him into changing his ways.

The mask calls out to him again and again to cleanse the city’s filth.

Myle Yan Tay is a writer, director and actor, and is an associate artist with Checkpoint Theatre. He is the author of Putu Piring (2020) and Through the Longkang (2021).

Fiction/Ethos Books/Paperback

Nine Yard Sarees by Prasanthi Ram (November 2023)

Credit: ETHOS BOOKS

8/8

Nine Yard Sarees is a collection of 11 interlinked short stories that paint a multigenerational portrait of a fictional Tamil Brahmin family.




The cast of characters live from 1950 to 2019 in India, Singapore, Australia and the United States.

Central to the stories is why matriarch Rajeswari “Raji” Iyer has chosen to live in seclusion in an ashram away from her two adult daughters and their millennial children. As readers slowly uncover Raji’s secret, they begin to wonder whether Raji will reunite with her family.

Prasanthi’s short stories can be found in various publications, such as What We Inherit: Growing Up Indian (2022). She is a writing lecturer at Nanyang Technological University.

Fiction/Ethos Books/Paperback

This article was originally published in The Straits Times.