Asian Books Blog is based in
Singapore. Lion City Lit explores
literary life in our own backyard. This week, we highlight three new
titles from local publisher, Ethos.
Moth Stories, a collection of short stories by Leonora Liow
A young girl’s ambitions prompt
dark stirrings in her nature. A father reckons with a lifetime of dysfunctional
family relations. A foreign worker is cut adrift on a raft of shattered dreams.
In the title story, Moth, a condemned
woman reclaims her broken dignity. In a collection filled with pity, humour and
irony, Leonora Liow explores the private universes of individuals navigating the
arcane waters of human existence and illuminates the extraordinary humanity
that endures.
Leonora Liow is a Singapore-based
writer. Moth Stories is her debut collection.
Moth Stories is published in paperback, priced at SGD 20, excluding
tax.
Priest In Geylang: The Untold Story of the Geylang Catholic Centre,
by Fr. Guillaume Artocarena
Cosmopolitan Singapore, an emblem
of globalised capitalism, is generally considered orderly, clean and green,
a shopping and business paradise, and a model of sound economic management.
Tourists, foreign journalists and visiting businessmen cast an absent-minded
glance at local society, noting that the food is excellent, everything works
well, and armoured tanks are absent on street corners. But after 17 years
living here, the author shows a different side of Singapore, by looking at her
from the grassroots. He paints a picture of a warm and generous people, much
less passive than they are often supposed, he describes the difficulties faced
by civil society, he tracks rapid social evolution as the City-State is
confronted with major challenges: a falling birth rate, cramped territory with
an infrastructure which cannot be extended indefinitely, and massive immigration
which is increasingly resented by the local population. Above all, Fr.
Arotcarena places on record the work and significance of his beloved Geylang
Catholic Centre.
Guillaume Arotçarena is a priest
of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (MEP). In 1972, he was sent on mission to
Singapore where he stayed until 1989. Redeployed in journalism, he was until
2007 in charge of the MEP press agency Eglises d’Asie (Asian Churches), when he specialised in news and information on
religions in Asia. He is now retired in the French Pyrénées.
Priest In Geylang is published in paperback, priced at SGD 20,
excluding tax.
Tales From The ECP, by Russ Soh
Singaporeans are mad for
acronyms, and everybody in the City-State knows ECP stands for East Coast
Parkway. But this famous road runs parallel to the East Coast Park - another ECP,
and the one this book celebrates. Tales From
The ECP explores incidents set in or around the East Coast Park, the
stories take us into the heart of Singaporean‐ness. As a meeting point, East
Coast Park brings together people of different ages, races, classes and
nationalities. As a launching pad for meandering conversations, the ECP allows
characters to reflect deeply on their sense of self, their identity, and their
relationships with others who share the same space.
Russ Soh gave up a high-flying
corporate career to write. He published his first collection of short stories, Not The Same Family, in 2013. Tales
From the ECP is his second collection of short stories.
Tales From The ECP is published in paperback, at SGD 14, excluding
tax.
Buying the Books
Click here to buy these books
direct from Ethos. They are also
available in bookstores in Singapore, and from online retailers.
