Singapore in 1860 is a vice-ridden town filled “with the dregs of humanity from two continents”. Opium makes up half of the British Empire’s trade in the East and, from Singapore, the Chinese triads control the vast distribution of chandu, the refined opium, which is spread through the south seas. Turf wars are fought on the high seas and on the streets of Chinatown to control the mighty profits of this trade. The colonial government, impoverished and ineffectual, can do nothing about it. Only the Chinese godfather, the Lord of the Kongsi, has that power through his control of the coolie, prostitute and opium trade.

When Zhen is forced to become the godfather of the Kongsi, cracks appear in Charlotte’s world and when Alexander, her son, unaware of his true paternity, arrives from Scotland and begins a secret and incestuous affair with his own half sister, it explodes.

Opium, murder, incest, suicide, passion and love. A heady combination in the sin city of the south seas.

About the Author

Dawn Farnham was born in Portsmouth, England in 1949. Her parents emigrated to Perth, Western Australia when she was two. She grew up a sandgroper, barefoot and free, roaming the bushy suburbs and beaches with her friends. In the sixties she, like so many other young Aussies, left on a ship for London, aged 17. In the Swinging years she met and married her journalist husband and moved to Paris, learned French and lots of other things and travelled round Europe in a Volkswagen beetle. As a foreign correspondent, her husband was posted to exotic locations and they lived in China, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan in the eighties and nineties. During this time she raised two daughters and taught English. Back in London she went back to school, doing a B.A. in Japanese at The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a Master’s Degree at Kings College. She and her husband now live in Singapore. It is in this thriving port city-state that she found her muse and began to write, finding particular pleasure in its colourful and often wild past. This is her first novel.

Reviews for books in The Straits Quartet

“The Red Thread is an intense and passionate book—it will stir and intrigue the reader in equal measure.” Nigel Barley, bestselling author of In the Footsteps of Stamford Raffles and Rogue Raider

“When Charlotte MacLeod journeys from her home in Madagascar to faraway, exotic Singapore in the 1830s, little does she realize how very different her new life will be. Her brother Robert has just been named head of the local police force, and her social position, together with her boundless curiosity and formidable intellect, leads her into friendships and affairs with men and women of many nationalities, religions, and political beliefs. Farnham’s debut is bittersweet and contemplative, a leisurely exploration replete with richly detailed landscapes both physical and interior. Multiple protagonists and perspectives, both Eastern and Western, and elaborate description transport the reader to a fascinating time and place brimming with mystical and poetic flourishes.” Booklist (Journal of the American Library Association)

“Charlotte and Robert are sibling orphans, now adults, who initially moved from Madagascar to Scotland and now reside in Singapore in the 1830s. Robert has been fortunate enough to secure a post as head of the police, and sends for Charlotte, knowing their future lies in this exotic but quickly evolving prosperous land. Charlotte quickly falls in love with the town she thinks of as “varied and faceted as a fabulous jewel.” The foreign characters are intriguing as well, such as Coleman, the architect Irishman who has built most of the town in solid, beautiful style to rival any European city yet with its own natural shapes and flowers to enchant every view. Then there is the small group of wives and mistresses who come from their own mysterious Asian backgrounds yet have created an insular camaraderie to strengthen them in the terror-laden moments from both native men and beasts.

But the real threat to their security lies in the slowly emerging love between Charlotte and Zhen, a coolie who also belongs to a powerful Chinese triad group. Theirs is a passionate affair doomed to disaster. Zhen is assisted in attaining this love by his fellow coolie, Qian, a man unsure of where his sexual interests lie. Yet Zhen relies on his faith in Taoist poetry to surmount all difficulties.

How will it all end or begin? The Red Thread is an exceptionally well-written novel whose descriptions and subplots concerning the land, religious beliefs, and relationships are so engagingly presented that the reader is sure to want to keep this passionate novel, which celebrates meaningful union rather than division. A beautiful story to relish on every page.” Review of the Historical Novels Society (Viviane Crystal)

“Immaculately researched, Dawn has an encyclopedic recall of all the people, places and mores of the time with Singapore was a nascent colony on the edge of the world.” Think

“It takes prodigious research and some imagination to bring old Singapore to life. Tae a walk through High Street/along the Singapore River/Chinatown, and meet the colourful characters who built Singapore. Thoroughly enjoyable historical romance.” Lifestyle

“The main plot follows the cross-racial love story of two fictional characters, Zhen, initially a lowly Chinese coolie, and Charlotte, a white waif of the British Empire, who hails from Madagascar, via Scotland.

The story of Zhen and Charlotte is interwoven with an account of the real-life cross-racial relationship between George Coleman, the Irish architect who built early Singapore practically from scratch, and his Armenian-Dutch-Javanese mistress, Takouhi.

The novel feels immaculately researched, and Dawn seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of topics as diverse as Chinese secret societies, sexual customs amongst the officers of colonial power and might, tiger attacks, what the fashionable girl was wearing in the 1830s, and how the not-so fashionable girl avoided pregnancy.

So it will be no surprise to learn that she turned to fiction partly because she was determined to share her love of Singapore’s history with the widest possible audience.” The Daily Telegraph

It’s 1941 and seventeen-year-old Victoria Khoo, daughter of a wealthy family of Straits Chinese, lives in luxury in colonial Singapore. Her carefree days are spent fantasising about marrying Sebastian Boustead, scion of a great British merchant family, and becoming mistress of his imposing mansion on Amber Road. Not even Sebastian’s arrival from London with his new fiancée, Elizabeth Nightingale, can dampen her dreams …

Then the war reaches Asia. First Malaya falls to the Japanese then ‘Fortress Singapore’ abruptly surrenders. As the inhabitants are deserted by Britain, Victoria is forced to protect both her family and her rival, Elizabeth, from the cruelty of the occupation. Victoria’s old life has vanished in a heartbeat – but nothing and no one will stand in the way of her destiny. Not the war. Not Elizabeth. And certainly not Joe Spencer, the charismatic Australian who both charms and infuriates her at every turn . . .

With intrigue, romance and suspense, Amber Road tells an epic story of one woman’s indomitable spirit against the backdrop of a world at war.

About the Author
Boyd Anderson is the author of Errol, Fidel and the Cuban Rebel Girls and Ludo and co-author of Children of the Dust. He lives in Sydney, but prefers weddings in Singapore and eating in Penang.

In the new land, they find solace in Penang Island’s embrace. They make history as they pioneer the birth of the Federated Malay States Railways; they wallow in the scent of spices and wonder at the rich blend of migrants and cultures on the island, and they bask in the warmth of its natives until Fate drags them back to India where it deals them its final blow.

At once magical, poignant and exotic, Devika Bai’s debut novel mesmerises as it unravels the love, loyalty and courage of the Bhonsles. The saga unfolds against the backdrop of war, famine, family conflict and social injustice, and hurtles towards its inevitable end in a masterful blend of history and fiction.

About the Author

D. Devika Bai is a retired school administrator of Malaysian Indian descent. Her short stories and articles have been published in print in Singapore and Malaysia, and online in several North American e-publications. She is the great-granddaughter of one of the earliest Tanjore Maratha immigrants to British Malaya.

Reviews

“New voice of Malaysian fiction” TODAY

“With The Flight of the Swans, Devika Bai has firmly marked for herself a place in the Malaysian literary scene” New Straits Times

“Devika Bai has a wonderful eye for detail.” Rani Manicka, author of The Rice Mother (winner of 2003 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize)

“The Flight of the Swans is a sweeping saga of the Bhonsles – from the fall of India to the British and their journey of hope to then Malaya. Devika identifies most with the fearless and independent Rani Meera Bai, who takes on the British and relaxes by reading, listening to old Tamil songs and watching classic movies.” The Star

“The Flight of the Swans contains a lot of historical, cultural and religious detail” The Sun

About the Author

Han Suyin is the author of over twenty books, including “A Many-Splendoured Thing”, which was made into a Hollywood film (winning six Academy Awards) and which inspired a popular song and a TV soap opera.. Han Suyin was chosen by “TIME” magazine as one of the twelve most influential “artists and thinkers” in Asia in the twentieth century.

Commemorative Edition Forewords
• Dr Leon Comber, former husband of Han Suyin, tells the untold “inside” story of how the book came to be written (which has not been presented before), the actual source of the material which HSY used, how General Templer on one of his visits to the Colonial Office, London, attempted to have the book withdrawn, and the repercussions which followed the publishing of the book.
• Professor Kirpal Singh writes about the importance of the work in the canon of Singapore and Malaysian literature, the impact it had on local literature and the books relevance today.

Reviews

“Moving and beautifully described” Times Literary Supplement, UK

“Considerable sensibility and penetration” The Sunday Times, UK

“An important book … a book of great richness … profoundly moving” The Daily Telegraph, UK

“Han Suyin can convey the heat, the squalor, and flux of Asiatic life with expert touches” TIME magazine, USA

In this unique work of fantasy fiction, author Golda Mowe — herself an Iban from Borneo — uses real beliefs, taboos and terminology of the Iban (a longhouse-dwelling indigenous group of people from Borneo who, until very recently, were renowned for practising headhunting) to weave an epic tale of good versus evil.

About the author
Born and raised in Sarawak on the island of Borneo to an Iban mother and Melanau father, Golda Mowe has always been interested in the culture and traditions of Borneo’s indigenous people. After graduating from university in Japan and enduring ten years of corporate life, the author found herself yearning for childhood evenings spent in the longhouse, sitting in a pool of lamplight, listening to her great-aunt tell tales of jungle animals or her father recount his hunting adventures. In this way she was led back to writing and is now living in Sibu, a town on the Rejang River in Sarawak, where she expends large portions of her time researching ideas for books and short stories, some of which she posts online at www.gmowe.ws/.

Media reviews
“This is exactly the book I’ve been waiting for – a fantasy novel that draws on the legends of our land. The author, who is of Iban and Melanau descent, was inspired by the tales she heard as a child in Sarawak and this exciting story draws on Iban mythology as well as the old ways of life that have all but disappeared. I look forward to more from Mowe and hope she will inspire other Malaysian writers to mine our local mythology for stories.” The Star, Malaysia

Rogue Raider is the adventure story of how one ship, the Emden, ties up the navies of four nations and audaciously starts the Battle of Penang in Malaysia, and how one man eludes Allied Forces in a desperate chase across Indonesia and the rest of Asia to America as he attempts to regain his native land.

It is fictionalised history but a true history that was deliberately suppressed by the British authorities of the time as too embarrassing and dangerous to be known. Revealed here, it brings vividly to life the Southeast Asia of the period, its sights, its sounds and its rich mix of peoples. And through it an unwilling participant in the war becomes an accidental hero.

About the Author

Nigel Barley is the author of twenty books with Penguin, Time Warner, Monsoon Books and Little,Brown. He originally trained as an anthropologist and worked in West Africa, spending time with the Dowayo people of North Cameroon. He survived to move to the Ethnography Department of the British Musem and it was in this connection that he first travelled to Southeast Asia. After forrays into Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan and Burma, Barley settled on Indonesia as his principal research interest and has worked on both the history and contemporary culture of that area. After escaping from the museum, he is now a writer and broadcaster and divides his time between London and Indonesia.

Reviews

“A swashbuckling adventure story, full of bawdy, uproarious fun. Barley writes with verve and humour—settle back and enjoy the journey.” Tash Aw, author of The Harmony Silk Factory and Map of the Invisible World

“Rogue Raider is an entertaining read and the events are incredible” The Asian Review of Books

“Rogue Raider is set during the First World War, when Singapore was a colony of the British Empire, and when one German ship, the Emden, managed to tie up the navies of four allied nations, thus mightily infuriating the British, who made it their number one priority to sink her” The Telegraph, UK

Veteran writer and author Ewe Paik Leong uncovers a hidden world of KTV lounges within hair salons, massage parlours that offer services beyond the therapeutic and food courts that transform at night into whirlpools of vice, drawing both young and old, the curious and the regulars. In a series of fascinating encounters and interviews with high-end nightclub hostesses and their mamasans, freelance escorts, surreptitious streetwalkers, urut batin ‘therapists’ and more, the author confronts head-on important issues of trafficking, poverty, heart-wrenching misery, wayward morals and even black magic.

This is Kuala Lumpur Undercover.

About the Author
Ewe Paik Leong is a Chinese-Malaysian writer and author. He earned his online BSBA from Southwest University, Kenner, LA, USA. Ewe lives in suburban Kuala Lumpur with his wife and daughter. Kuala Lumpur Undercover is his fifth nonfiction book.

Born to Indian parents in Singapore and raised by a Chinese amah, Mahita Vas struggled to fit into a conservative society where exuberance is frowned upon and conformity is a tradition. She spent a significant part of life feeling different, being different. Throughout her career with Singapore Airlines, then as an advertising industry executive, she led a volatile life – sometimes blissfully and enviably contented, at other times wishing she was dead.

Mahita enjoyed the roller-coaster world of advertising – an industry offering the perfect camouflage for psychosis – but after leaving it for a more stable environment she began to suspect the wild ride was in her head and the roller coaster would follow her everywhere. No one, least of all Mahita, suspected she was mentally ill … until the day her sister suggested she had ‘inherited Daddy’s illness’. This epiphanic revelation led to a bipolar disorder diagnosis at age 41, followed by a suicide attempt where she narrowly escaped death.

Praying to the Goddess of Mercy charts Mahita’s journey from chaos to stability. It offers insights into an illness for which there is no known cause, no cure and no immunity. It will inspire and enlighten people with mental disorders and the loved ones who suffer with them. Ultimately, it is about being true to oneself and having the courage to take charge in the pursuit of happiness.

About the Author
Hailing from Singapore, Mahita Vas struggled for years with what she now knows were manic highs and depressive lows. She credits her husband, children, friends and her daily dosage of lithium for providing an essential element of balance. To learn more about Mahita, please visit: www.mahitavas.com.

In this unique work of fantasy fiction, author Golda Mowe — herself an Iban from Borneo — uses real beliefs, taboos and terminology of the Iban (a longhouse-dwelling indigenous group of people from Borneo who, until very recently, were renowned for practising headhunting) to weave an epic tale of good versus evil.

About the author
Born and raised in Sarawak on the island of Borneo to an Iban mother and Melanau father, Golda Mowe has always been interested in the culture and traditions of Borneo’s indigenous people. After graduating from university in Japan and enduring ten years of corporate life, the author found herself yearning for childhood evenings spent in the longhouse, sitting in a pool of lamplight, listening to her great-aunt tell tales of jungle animals or her father recount his hunting adventures. In this way she was led back to writing and is now living in Sibu, a town on the Rejang River in Sarawak, where she expends large portions of her time researching ideas for books and short stories, some of which she posts online at www.gmowe.ws/.

Media reviews
“This is exactly the book I’ve been waiting for – a fantasy novel that draws on the legends of our land. The author, who is of Iban and Melanau descent, was inspired by the tales she heard as a child in Sarawak and this exciting story draws on Iban mythology as well as the old ways of life that have all but disappeared. I look forward to more from Mowe and hope she will inspire other Malaysian writers to mine our local mythology for stories.” The Star, Malaysia

Imagine serving a crisp, tangy aged Riesling with a steamed river fish with ginger, soy, and chili, or a peppery California Zinfandel with succulent Chinese barbecued pork ribs. For sheer indulgence, savor Hainanese chicken rice with lashings of chili, ginger, and sweet soy and a glass of Sauternes – surely a match made in heaven. Whether you’re a wine lover or new to the subject, this book encourages you to have fun and experiment for there is no reason why you can’t enjoy wine with all your favorite Asian dishes.

About the Author

Edwin Soon has picked grapes, worked as a cellar rat, and made wine in Australia, USA, and France. An enologist by training, he juggles many roles, including organizing wine competitions and sitting on several international wine judging panels. Edwin is also a wine educator and wine writer. He is the contributing wine editor of Appetite magazine, a wine columnist for Time Out Singapore and The Star (Malaysia), and has been featured on National Public Radio’s The Splendid Table in America. Edwin is the author of The Wines of France and co-author of Wine with Asian Food: New Frontiers in Taste.

Reviews

“Well presented, well researched and well written … I strongly recommend this book” James Halliday, author of James Halliday Australian Wine Companion

“Millions of people will appreciate this book, which opens a new dimension to the enjoyment of wine. It marries cultures and cuisines with commonsense and experience.” Jeremy Oliver, author of The Australian Wine Annual

“You love wine. You love Asian food. But you have always been worried how to put the two together. This thoughtful, original and elegantly produced book shows you how. Thoroughly recommended.” Clive Coates MW, author of The Wines of Burgundy and Côte d’Or