The Light Between Us
by Elaine Chiew
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Pub Date 10 Sep 2024 | Archive Date 30 Apr 2024
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Description
The Time Traveler's Wife meets Crazy Rich Asians in this Southeast Asian historical romance that defies time and space as an archivist explores Singapore's tumultuous past through a supernatural connection.
At work one night, photography archivist Charlie Sze-Toh receives a misdirected letter from Wang Tian Wei, a 1920s colonial era Chinese photographer. Through a mysterious digital folder at her end and photographic plates at his, they begin a conversation that leads to a transcendental romance that spans lifetimes.
In his time, Tian Wei scours a turbulent Singapore for his missing friend, Aiko, leading him to the perfumed chambers of a Japanese brothel. Meanwhile, in the modern day, Charlie struggles against a family dynamic dominated by her stepmother, a manipulative matriarch who uses family secrets as bargaining chips. Communication starts to become difficult and Tian Wei’s letters are tinged by the increasing threat of Japanese Occupation. Will one last fate-defying letter from Charlie allow Tian Wei to keep their love alive?
Inspired by her research into Singaporean historical archives, Elaine Chiew weaves Chinese mythology and early 20th century colonial Singapore into this speculative epic.
Advance Praise
"Steeped in a rich tapestry of language, food, fashion, politics and art. (...) With impeccable research and a light touch, master storyteller Elaine Chiew renders a novel that is at once a love story, a meditation on photography, an elegant historical fiction, and a gripping tale that enchanted me to the very last page. I finished the book pondering the ways in which our pasts and our futures are intricately woven together. Bravo for this incredible book and tremendous talent!"—Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring
"an intricate, richly layered and meticulously researched historical detective story"—Hannah Vincent, author of The Weaning and She Clown and Other Stories
"This is an engrossing tale of bittersweet love and longing simultaneously straddling two eras in Singapore: a young archivist and her adoptive brother in the present-day city and a photographer in colonial times. The separate worlds of Cantonese photographers and Japanese soldiers orbit over the Internet when the photographer mysteriously appears on the archivist's computer screen, luring her into a celestial realm in her basement office. Told through archived photographs, Chiew immerses the reader in old Singapore and the harrowing years of the Japanese Occupation while moving seamlessly into the lives of a wealthy family led by a devious matriarch. Meticulously researched and richly crafted, The Light Between Us dances elegantly between truths and lies, promises and threats, and between a sweet dream and harsh reality."—Mahita Vas, author of A Good Day to Die and It Happened on a Scrabble Sunday
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781915584670 |
| PRICE | US$17.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 336 |
