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Singapore - a trading post where different lives jostle and mix. It is 1927, and three young people are starting to question whether this in-between island can ever truly be their home. Mei Lan comes from a famous Chinese dynasty but yearns to free herself from its stifling traditions; 10-year-old Howard seethes at the indignities heaped on his fellow Eurasians by the colonial British; Raj, fresh off the boat from India, wants only to work hard and become a successful businessman. As the years pass, and World War II sweeps through the east, with the Japanese occupying Singapore, the three are thrown together in unexpected ways, and tested to breaking point. Richly evocative, this novel paints a scintillating panorama of 30 tumultuous years in Singapore's history through the passions and struggles of characters the reader will find it hard to forget.
"Chand is a skilled storyteller and a conscientious researcher who weaves gripping adventure, magnificent romance and well-informed history into the sort of book it’s difficult to put down and impossible to read in bed if you want a good night’s sleep!" - Historic Novels Review
"This meticulously researched book is alive with engrossing detail, whether on the odour of Chinatown, the privations of a guerilla camp or the appalling rituals of foot binding." - Guardian (UK)
"Historical fiction at its most complex and engaging...balances the communist groupings, Japanese occupation and emerging nationalism with skill...As history A Different Sky is engrossing: as fiction, highly enjoyable." - Literary Review
"Starred Review. [Chand] proves herself a master of the modern Asian epic in this tale…[she] offers a credible, compelling panorama of the tragedy and resilience, culture and individuality, political evolution, dissolution, and renaissance of 20th-century Singapore." - Publishers Weekly
This information about A Different Sky was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
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