City of Small Blessings: A Novel

This blog is to mark the launch of my novel, City of Small Blessings.

The novel, published by Landmark Books, will be launched on 18 December in Singapore.

What's the book about? An author may be the worst person to define his work simply (if he could he might not have written the book). So I'll quote the back of the book blurb.

"A Singaporean retires, migrates and then returns. But, he slowly finds, there is no simple return to the place called home. Once a well known public figure who contributed to his country, he is now outside the rush of workdays, on the fringe of a city he barely recognizes, distanced from his wife and son, even as he loves them.

A letter comes from the government and he begins a journey. In the present, he must face the new men of authority. In the past, he must confront old sacrifices and struggles. He regrets. He loves. He cycles and discovers."

I am not sure anyone will read this novel, at least not as I hope it will be read. I tried it on some friends who had liked my stories in Stand Alone, which I published back in 1991. They advised the novel is too serious. Inject more humour. Make things move faster

Some said the message in City of Small Blessings is too sad, too hard on Singapore. Think positive and praise. Be fair.

I do listen. I like to think I do. But sometimes a writer has first to listen to the story and bring his own compass to its telling.

Some could see what I was trying to do, and how I was trying to do it. Some could see the truths the story was trying to convey, palatable or not. That helped in those moments of doubt.

Now, the story that I have worked to tell in these past 12 years, with certainties and doubts, and challenges to find the time and the best words in the best order, will shortly become a book.

A book on bookstore shelves, with a cover, a price and a hope that someone will buy and read the story inside.

A common adage is that a book finds its own audience. I hold out that hope. I begin this blog to reach out to those who have found the book so they might, if they wish, tell me what they think.

So with the book, I am launching this blog.

Writing is a solitary business. So is reading. The writer of a novel does not connect easily to his readers and audience, unlike say a playwright. Readers too are solitary, distanced each from the other, unlike an audience in a play.

I hope the blog can help us connect and exchange views.

I wrote my story as best I could. But I do listen. I like to think I do.