Showing results by narrator "Benjamin Chow" in All Categories

I got myself a Twitter Account to gain supporters. I'm furious that my arch enemy, Michael, is doing the same. Oh man, he's everywhere—Facebook, IM, YouTube, you name it. But what he doesn't realise is how popular I am. My secret weapon? My sister WPI (Whiny, Pesky and Irritating) and her...

Ismael, a transplanted Singaporean, lives on a bucolic suburban Brisbane street. His job is to decide whether asylum-seekers get to stay in the country, a dilemma that never fails to remind him of his own immigrant status. But then his life begins to take on the hue of a nightmare: his neighbour...

Eye on the World is the third and concluding volume of Tan Kok Seng's autobiography, where he and his young family go to bustling Hong Kong. He writes with endearing honesty about a place that seems a lot like home, yet is vastly different in many ways, and this affectionate sense of observation is carried through a round-the-world trip he embarks on.

Enter the world of Holden Heng, the not-so-lucky-in-love protagonist of this comic realist novel that documents social currents transforming the Lion City. Described as the most Singaporean of Singapore writers, Robert Yeo presents an immensely entertaining story of a typical Singaporean man's escapades with three very different women. Will he ever find true love?

Three friends board an overnight sleeper bus in Japan, little knowing the sinister bus journey they will ensure should they stay awake throughout. Chills and thrills in this short story from the Storytel Epigram Horror Competition...

Newly-wed Sheena gets her new apartment at a steal, only to realize that she has gotten more than she bargained for when she finds a box of strange items hidden under some old toys...

When his diaries are stolen and published, Amos thinks his world is coming to an end. But what he doesn't realise is that he's going to become really famous! Adoring fan mail, girls throwing themselves at his feet and, with 5,000 friends on Facebook, yes… FINALLY! Life looks to be turning...

Landon Locke is no ordinary barista. A man of many names and identities, he has lived through many lifetimes, but his memory spans only days. Danger brews as Landon struggles to piece together reality through his fog of amnesia. A mysterious organisation called CODEX bent on hunting him down, a...

Satirical and sympathetic, political and personal, A Certain Exposure traces the adolescences of twin brothers Andrew and Brian, culminating in the explosive events leading to Andrew's tragic death. This is a classic coming-of-age tale doubled across two vividly individual brothers, who struggle to navigate a complex tangle of relationships and coercive forces, cinematically interwoven with the yearnings and fears of an ensemble of mothers, fathers, cousins, friends and lovers both false and true.

During the Christmas holidays in 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggers a tsunami that devastates fourteen countries. Two couples from Singapore are vacationing in Phuket when the tsunami strikes. Alternating between the aftermath of the catastrophe and past events that led these characters to that fateful moment, Now That It's Over weaves a tapestry of causality and regret, and chronicles the physical and emotional wreckage wrought by natural and manmade disasters.

Derrick can't believe his luck when he rekindles a romance with ex-girlfriend Yifan. But Yifan remains aloof and distant, eventually confiding to Derrick that in her hometown of Ipoh, she discovered that she is actually a fox spirit with mystical powers. But Derrick isn't the only person who has fallen under Yifan's spell. Unbeknownst to him, Tien Chen, a man with an unhealthy obsession with fire, has also been dating her.

Kevin is a young man without a soul, holidaying in Tokyo; Mr Five, the enigmatic kappa, is the man he so happens to meet. Little does Kevin know that kappas—the river demons of Japanese folklore—desire nothing more than the souls of other humans. Set between Singapore and Japan, Kappa Quartet is split into eight discrete sections, tracing the rippling effects of this chance encounter across a host of other characters, connected and bound to one another in ways both strange and serendipitous.

In this revealing sequel to his bestselling autobiography Son of Singapore, Tan Kok Seng finds himself in Malaysia as a British diplomat's chauffeur. While driving luminaries like author Han Suyin around, Tan falls in love with Heung, a servant girl with dark brown eyes. Despite parental objections, they marry and have a child in secret.

In the Nation, citizenship is competitively earned, and the sting of failure strikes swift. The smallest professional blemish may spell demotion or even deportation to offshore labour communities called Depositories, while the affluent are insured against all misfortune and can do no wrong. Santhosh is a Transient student hoping to ace the Civil Primaries and make Citizen the following year, when his father is suddenly deported and State agents murder his guardian's entire family.

Born on the night of the nation's independence, Gimme Lao is cheated of the honour of being Singapore's firstborn son by a vindictive nurse. This forms the first of three things Gimme never knows about himself, the second being the circumstances surrounding his parents' marriage, and the third being the profound (but often unintentional) impact he has on other people's lives.

Sally Bong is the typical do-gooder. But her journey as an exemplary citizen of Singapore is put into question when she meets people on the margins, upending everything she has learned in school. In a follow-up to the hilarious Let's Give It Up for Gimme Lao!, Sebastian Sim delves deeper into a...

I write my diary in the toilet to get away from my troubles, like having to compete with Michael, the bully who's in the swim team with me, and falling out with my best friend, Alvin, over a girl! My diary goes wherever I go as there are those who want to read it. For I know secrets, like how to...

This diary began as Mum's New Year's resolution to get me to write. She told me to write when I am doing my big business. "Five to eight minutes max!" she said. "I don't want you to develop piles!" And so my writing in the bathroom began. My entries started with the boring old stuff…then Mum...

Death of a Perm Sec is a mystery about the demise of the permanent-secretary of the housing ministry, Chow Sze Teck, accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes over his career. Set in 1980's Singapore, the novel examines the civil servant's death, which first appears to be suicide by a cocktail of alcohol, morphine and Valium. But upon investigation by a CID inspector who might not be what he seems, the family discovers there may be far more sinister circumstances behind his death, that reach to the very top of government.