The Magic Circle
I sit by your bed and watch you, as I sometimes do. There are days when you are so beautiful and vivacious and alive, we cannot believe that you are going to die. Other days, we are convinced you are at death's door and that this, this is the day that we will lose you … Now I bear witness to the disease that is eating you up alive, ravaging your physical shell. I look at your wasted body, once so slim and graceful; at the jaundiced pallor of your once perfect skin stretched tight around the still lovely bones of your face; at the way shadows collect in the hollows around your eyes and your collarbones. And very slowly, inside me, something small starts to crack. A tiny fissure that spreads and widens, before splitting open entirely to let something hot and liquid well up like molten lava, threatening to spill out the sides of my mouth, as rich and bitter and metallic as blood. Is this then what heartbreak feels like?
*
The Magic Circle tells the story of what happens when Charmaine Chan’s sister Elaine is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer. As the illness progresses, family members living on different continents gather together during Elaine’s last days. Striving to distract Elaine from the worst effects of the cancer, Charmaine takes to the pen: conjuring up the vanished world of their childhood in Singapore, and discovering a way to keep her promise to Elaine’s six-year-old daughter.
A contemplation on grief and loss, nostalgia and yearning, The Magic Circle is for anyone who’s been torn apart and put back again by the inexplicable power of memory.
Read the Prologue and Chapter One
The Magic Circle
Slide to see
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
Reviews
Charmaine Chan's lyrical memoir speaks to the soul of anyone who knows the desperate pain of watching a loved one dying, little by little [...] She confronts the dread of no more being able to form new memories with the only other inhabitants of a shared local universe as us—our siblings—with precision, sensitivity and, above all, honesty. —Serene Goh, head of SPH Content Lab
In a mix of raw honesty and good humour, [Charmaine] does not try to sugarcoat the reality of the pain caused by the loss of her sister, but rather manages to find the remedy that eventually makes grief bearable, a blend of strong memories and strong family bonds. —Shelly Bryant, poet, writer, and translator
... a breathtaking rumination about grief and memory, loss and love. —Jennifer Chen, editor of The Peak
Recommended Books
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
Digital Braille
$19.90 SGD
A Place For Us
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
E-book
$20.00 SGD
Ayam Buah Keluak and the Art of Writing: a memoir on living creatively
Paperback
$21.00 SGD
E-book
$21.00 SGD
Loss Adjustment
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
17A Keong Saik Road
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
The Sound of SCH: A Mental Breakdown, A Life Journey
Creative Non-Fiction
Paperback
$21.00 SGD
E-book
$21.00 SGD
Loss Adjustment
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
17A Keong Saik Road
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
The Sound of SCH: A Mental Breakdown, A Life Journey
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
Running on Empty: The Story Behind 0.01s
Paperback
$24.00 SGD
E-Book
$24.00 SGD
Where I Was: A Memoir About Forgetting and Remembering
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
Digital Braille
$19.90 SGD
A Place For Us
Paperback
$16.90 SGD
E-book
$16.90 SGD
A Philosopher's Madness
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
E-book
$18.60 SGD
The Magic Circle
Paperback
$12.00 SGD
E-book
$12.00 SGD
Notes After Terawih
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
E-book
$20.00 SGD
Goodbye My Kampong! Potong Pasir, 1966 to 1975
Paperback
$18.90 SGD
E-book
$18.90 SGD
Ordinary Stories in an Extraordinary World
Paperback
$15.00 SGD
Growing Up in Kampong Potong Pasir
Paperback
$23.36 SGD
Bite Harder: Open Letters & Close Readings
Paperback
$11.21 SGD
Rebound: LaoLao's Guide to Giving Up
Paperback
$18.60 SGD
Children of Las Vegas
Paperback
$20.00 SGD
E-book
$20.00 SGD
Ayam Buah Keluak and the Art of Writing: a memoir on living creatively
Paperback
$30.00 SGD
Kampong Boy
Out of stock
English
$20.00 SGD
Chinese
$20.00 SGD
My Daughter, My Friend: Letters to a Daughter
Out of stock
paperback
$16.82 SGD
Jean Marshall’s Pahang Letters, 1953-54: Sidelights on Malaya during The Emergency
Out of stock
Paperback
$35.00 SGD
Routes: A Singaporean Memoir 1940-75
Out of stock
Paperback
$21.90 SGD
More or Less Rapid Transit
Out of stock
Paperback
$24.90 SGD
Electric Flying Tram-Car
Out of stock
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.
Read more
No negotiation for blood debt
Feb 14, 2022
The Burmese language resistance poetry is deeply embedded in the country’s colonial past. When mo...
Read more
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...
Read more
