POETRY
FOOTNOTES ON FALLING
By Joshua Ip
Math Paper Press/ Paperback/ 70 pages/ $16/ Books Kinokuniya, BooksActually
"(I)n certain urgent/ cities," writes Ip in his fourth poetry collection, "words left too/long out cool, curdle/ or clot." In 44 wry, self-deprecating poems, he navigates the detritus of relationships with a smattering of ekphrasis, wordplay through translation and poetic forms, such as the twin cinema and the liwuli. Mind the endnotes.
FICTION
MODERN MYTHS
By Clara Chow
Math Paper Press/ Paperback/ 312 pages/ $19/ BooksActually
Chow's sophomore collection of short stories locates figures from Greek myths in today's Singapore, where the sorceress Medea is an expatriate wife abandoned by her husband; Prometheus, who stole fire for humans, hawks char siew in Toa Payoh; Laocoon and Cassandra, disregarded soothsayers now reduced to selling tissue paper, meet up to get fresh supplies from NTUC.
SOFIA AND THE UTOPIA MACHINE
By Judith Huang
Epigram Books/ Paperback/ 240 pages/ $18.08/ Major bookstores In Huang's speculative debut novel, Sofia, a fatherless schoolgirl living in a stratified future Singapore, accidentally creates a new universe in her mother's Biopolis lab and is forced to go on the run from the government. She must venture into the lowest rung of society, the Voids, and unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance seven years ago.
LONTAR #10
Edited by Jason Erik Lundberg
Epigram Books/ Paperback/ 280 pages/ $20.22/ Books Kinokuniya
The final issue of the world's only South-east Asian biannual speculative fiction journal contains a bumper crop of stories, including a comic by Eisner nominee Drewscape, post-apocalyptic satay and a dating app for interdimensional monstrosities.
9TH OF AUGUST
By Andre Yeo
Epigram Books/ Paperback/ 288 pages/ $26.64/ Major bookstoresAhead of Singapore's 55th National Day, six suicide bombers slip into the country with the mission of setting off explosives around the island. The events leading up to the attack are told from the perspectives of three fathers: Henry, a single dad caught in the blast; Rahim, an Internal Security Department inspector tracking the terror group; and Tun, an Afghan who lost his family in a drone attack and is now intent on vengeance.
NON-FICTION
NANYANG: ESSAYS ON HERITAGE
By Wang Gungwu
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Publishing/ Hardcover/ 221 pages/ $38.41/ Books Kinokuniya
Prof Wang, who is University Professor of the National University of Singapore, reflects on the Nanyang region and its heritage and historical divisions following decolonisation in this series of essays.
STAY GOLD
By Clara Lock
Marshall Cavendish/ Paperback/ 222 pages/ $18.68 before GST/ Major bookstores
Lock writes a memoir of her late friend Daniel Selvakumar, who was born with a congenital heart defect that resulted in him undergoing his first open-heart surgery at just 14 months old. Not expected to survive past childhood, he lived a full life helping others until the age of 25.
COMICS
MR KIASU COLLECTION
By Johnny Lau
Shogakukan Asia/ Box set/ $88/ Available for pre-order at Books Kinokuniya, Popular, MPH, ActionCity and Toy Or Game
With the return of 1990s local icon Mr Kiasu last year in Mr. Kiasu: Everything Also Like Real after an 18-year hiatus, publisher Shogakukan is bringing out a limited-edition box set of the eight original Mr Kiasu comics, along with a figurine of the character. Only 500 sets will be released.
Olivia Ho
