Siew Li leaves her husband and children to fight for freedom in the jungles of Malaya. Decades later, a Malaysian journalist returns to her homeland to uncover the truth of a massacre committed during the Emergency, while Siew Li's son uncovers the truth of his family's past. Jeremy Tiang's debut novel follows an extended family from the 1940s to the present day as they navigate the choppy political currents of the region.
Winner of the Singapore Literature Prize
"More so than provoke, his novel makes an admirably human attempt to translate lived experience into fiction and nudge its way towards a sympathetic understanding.State Of Emergency is a compelling, important piece of work from one of Singapore's finest living authors." ~Toh Wen Li, Straits Times
"Informed by years of painstaking research and brought to life with naturalistic, context-sensitive dialogue, Tiang's characters speak not only with the authority, but also the tenderness, of truth." ~Theophilus Kwek, Asian Review of Books
"Well researched, informative and even-handed in its view of a chapter of Singapore's history about which many of us know little." ~Keith Miller, The Spectator
"Jeremy Tiang's new novel will most likely inform, enthral and upset its readers in roughly equal measures. ...gripping and powerfully emotive." ~Alastair Mabbott, The Herald
“Sinnlich und plausibel,”~Marko Martin, Deutschlandfunk Kultur
Residenz Verlag (Austria; translated by Susann Urban)
Audiobook (read by Chio Su-Ping)
A woman fleeing her previous existence meets a fellow Singaporean on an overnight train in Norway. A foreign worker is decapitated in an HDB building site accident. A Singaporean wife must negotiate Beijing as her British husband awaits a heart transplant. And in different corners of the world, Singaporeans and exiles mark National Day in their own ways. These wry, unsettling stories ask how we decide where we belong, and what happens to those who don't.
"Tiang moves across social issues, artistic concerns, and domestic problems with a deft and subtle hand throughout." ~Tan Teck Heng, Business Times
"Moving beyond Singapore's official narrative, Tiang's It Never Rains on National Day weaves together the diversity of the nation, through his masterful portrayal of his characters' psyches" ~Aaron Chan, Cha
"An elegant and engaging collection." ~Stephanie Ye, QLRS
"Essential reading." ~Clara Chow, Straits Times
