by Jinny Koh
Synopsis
When 7-year-old Anna told a lie to get out of trouble, she didn’t expect her older sister to go missing. Faced with her mother’s wrath and riddled with guilt, Anna tries to make amends as she grapples with the aftermath of her actions.
Until her daughter’s body is found, Su Lai refuses to believe that she has simply disappeared. Turning to a medium as her obsession to find her daughter escalates, the family is sucked into a web of pain and deceit that forces them to confront their own measures of loss. A masterful debut by Jinny Koh, The Gods Will Hear Us Eventually boldly interrogates the extent of familial love and expectation while unravelling the complexities of hope and redemption.
About the Author
Jinny Koh’s stories and essays have appeared in Pembroke Magazine, The Carolina Quarterly, Kyoto Journal, Columbia Journal, Best New Singaporean Short Stories: Volume 2, and Litro, among others.
Her short story, “Close To Home”, was recently shortlisted for the 2017 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Jinny graduated Phi Kappa Phi with a Master of Professional Writing from the University of Southern California, where she was the Fiction Editor for The Southern California Review.
Currently a freelance writer based in Singapore, The Gods Will Hear Us Eventually is her debut novel.
Praise
A suspenseful, fast-moving and psychologically acute story of a family tragedy, Jinny Koh’s novel, The Gods Will Hear Us Eventually, follows the impact of a missing child on each member of the family and on the bonds that tie them together. A beautiful debut.
— Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander and The Revolution of Marina M.
At its heart, modestly and sensitively written, this is a story about braving unspeakable cracks that widen upon a tragedy in the family.
— Cyril Wong, author of The Lover’s Inventory and The Last Lesson of Mrs. De Souza
It’s childhood, and we meet a pair of adoring, rivalrous young sisters. One of them vanishes, whereupon fraught harmony leads to sadness, mistrust and disconnection. From this life-fissure Jinny Koh conjures a majestic and beautiful novel of perseverance and redemption. Above all it’s the story of a family - observed with love, humour, compassion. And wisdom. The portrait of the heroine, Anna—stubborn, feisty, funny, longing for growth and forgiveness—will linger long in any reader’s mind, and this is a major achievement from a young writer of astonishing and ever-growing gifts.
— Richard Rayner, author of Los Angeles Without A Map and A ‘Bright & Guilty Place, and the co-creator of the recent TV series Knightfall.
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ISBN: 978-981-11-7703-3 (paperback) / 978-981-14-1494-7 (e-book)
Published: 2018
Dimension: 130mm x 200mm
Extent: 292
Finish: Paperback