Heartland (new edition)
Hailed as “the definitive Singaporean novel”, this new edition of Heartland is accompanied by a new preface by author Daren Shiau and a publisher’s foreword that contextualises the novel’s imprint on the Singapore literary landscape since its first publication in 1999.
An iconic work, Heartland explores the paradox of rootedness and rootlessness in fast-changing Singapore. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows the years of Wing Seng as he leaves school and is conscripted into full-time National Service. As Wing tries to reconcile his past with his future amid transitions through different phases of life, he finds meaning in his intense attachment to his surrounding landscape. Yet, as relationships and the years slip by, Wing is forced to question his own certainties and the wisdom of the people he values.
Set in Singapore’s heartland at the turn of the century, Heartland’s capturing of the texture of everyday life provides the backdrop essential to the bildungsroman’s exploration of identity, belonging and connection in an increasingly urbanised Singapore.
Heartland (new edition)
Slide to see
Paperback
$22.00 SGD
E-book
$22.00 SGD
Reviews
“The definitive Singaporean novel” —Lonely Planet
“There is a poetic clarity to Shiau's writing that transforms ordinary landscapes we Singaporeans stride past unseeingly every day into literary mise-en-scène.” —The Straits Times
“A personal vision. A personal response. That is what Shiau has developed to a remarkable extent.” —Edwin Thumboo, Emeritus Professor at NUS, Cultural Medallion Recipient for Literature
“Daren Shiau’s Heartland is one of the first Singapore novels in English to render the experience of living in heartlands a central theme and to link it crucially to an investigation of identity and place… [the text] seek[s] implicitly to claim the heartland space and the figure of the heartlander as authentically Singaporean, disclosing to differing extents and levels of self-consciousness, the cultural, social, and political fissures in Singapore society, as well as the limits of imagining alternatives.” —Angelia Poon, Associate Professor of Literature at NTU, from ‘Common Ground, Multiple Claims: Representing and Constructing Singapore’s “Heartland”’, Asian Studies Review (2013)
Fiction
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$20.00 SGD
E-book
$20.00 SGD
Singa-Pura-Pura: Malay Speculative Fiction from Singapore
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$19.00 SGD
E-book
$19.00 SGD
After the Inquiry
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$22.00 SGD
E-book
$22.00 SGD
Heartland (new edition)
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$23.30 SGD
E-book
$23.30 SGD
Malay Sketches
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$18.00 SGD
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$18.00 SGD
Cooling-Off Day
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$20.00 SGD
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$20.00 SGD
Corridor: 12 Short Stories
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$18.60 SGD
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$18.60 SGD
The Gods Will Hear Us Eventually
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$14.00 SGD
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$14.00 SGD
Interpreter of Winds
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$25.00 SGD
E-book
$25.00 SGD
Collected Plays Three
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$25.00 SGD
Collected Plays One
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$13.00 SGD
E-book
$13.00 SGD
Singapore Siu Dai: The SG Conversation In A Cup
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$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
Dream Storeys
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$32.71 SGD
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$32.71 SGD
Memorandum
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$16.00 SGD
Hook and Eye: Stories from the Margins
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$25.00 SGD
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$25.00 SGD
Collected Plays Two
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$12.00 SGD
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$12.00 SGD
Giving Alms
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In This Desert, There Were Seeds
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$18.60 SGD
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The Impermanence of Lilies
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Telltale: 11 Stories
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Blood Collected Stories
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Let Me Tell You Something About That Night
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Found Texts of the AAI Anon, Circa 3119: Eight Lyric Essays
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$20.56 SGD
this is how you walk on the moon: an anthology of anti-realist fiction
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Buy My Beloved Country
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These Foolish Things & Other Stories
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$23.00 SGD
The Inlet
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2719
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$18.00 SGD
Gone Case
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Singapore Siu Dai 2: The SG Conversation Upsize!
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First Fires
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Trackless Paths
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Ah... The Fragrance of Durians
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Island of Silence
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Shezlez the Self-Proclaimed
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3
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Sampan
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Payoh
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Pulse
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$23.00 SGD
Eastern Heathens: An Anthology of Subverted Asian Folklore
Out of stock
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$15.84 SGD
Afternoon Tea at Raffles Hotel
Out of stock
Paperback
$9.25 SGD
Afternoon Tea at Raffles Hotel Singapore: A Fun Activity Book
Out of stock
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$14.00 SGD
Here and Beyond: 12 Stories | A Study Companion
Out of stock
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$16.00 SGD
Here and Beyond: 12 Stories
Out of stock
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$20.00 SGD
Tales of Two Cities
Out of stock
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$13.00 SGD
Telltale: 11 Stories | A Study Companion
Out of stock
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$22.00 SGD
Passages: Stories of Unspoken Journeys
Out of stock
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$13.00 SGD
Singapore Siu Dai 3: The SG Conversation Dabao!
Out of stock
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$40.00 SGD
Singapore Siu Dai Box Set
Out of stock
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
Vanishing Point
Out of stock
Paperback
$10.00 SGD
Off Centre
Out of stock
Out of print
Attunement
Is life hustling you out of tune? As the week roars by, we invite you to a slice of attunement penned lovingly by our authors, friends, and yours truly. Freshly delivered weekly with care. Intimacy guaranteed. Read selected letters below.
Magical, luminous things
Feb 19, 2022
I have flown across an ocean this week. This still sounds surreal to say.
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No negotiation for blood debt
Feb 14, 2022
The Burmese language resistance poetry is deeply embedded in the country’s colonial past. When mo...
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Burning holes in the darkness
Feb 7, 2022
Poets killed in broad daylight, writers tortured and maimed. I wonder if their ghosts watch on fr...
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