How We Disappeared
First edition cover
AuthorJing-Jing Lee
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel, historical fiction
Set inSingapore, 1942 and 2000
PublisherOneworld Publications
Publication date
2019
Media typePrint: hardback
Pages352
ISBN9781786074126
OCLC1152198115
823.92
LC ClassPR9570.S53 L44
Preceded byThe Ghost Bride 

How We Disappeared: A Novel is a 2019 historical fiction novel by Singaporean author Jing-Jing Lee, written in English.[1]

Background

Lee developed the book from a short story she wrote, "Cardboard Lady," that appeared in her first collection, If I Could Tell You (2013). She named the main character Chiow Tee after her own mother; the name means "care for a brother" (照弟 zhàodì). She wanted to focus attention on the "comfort women" taken to work as slaves in Japanese military brothels, unlike other fiction about the occupation of Singapore which focused on resistance violence and male prisoners of war.[2][3]

Plot

Singapore, the year 2000: a twelve-year-old boy hears a mumbled confession from his grandmother, which leads him to her history of sexual slavery during the Japanese occupation of Singapore.[4]

Reception

In the Financial Times, Zoë Apostolides praised the novel, saying "Lee intersperses these sections with real structural skill to form a deeply affecting whole, and one that reincarnates the disappeared by telling their many disparate stories."[5]

How We Disappeared was shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize, and longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the HWA Debut Crown (a prize for historical writing).[6][7]

In 2022, How We Disappeared was included on the Big Jubilee Read, a list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors produced to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.[8][9]

References

  1. ↑ Banerjee, Argha Krishna (28 August 2020). "Secret horrors from 1940's Singapore". Telegraph India. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  2. ↑ Fisk, Alan (August 2019). "How We Disappeared: An Interview with Jing-Jing Lee". Historical Novels Review. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  3. ↑ Blumberg-Kason, Susan (29 August 2019). ""How We Disappeared" by Jing-Jing Lee". Asian Review of Books. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  4. ↑ Baker, Phil (5 May 2019). "Fiction review: How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee; Dublin Palms by Hugo Hamilton; Ash Before Oak by Jeremy Cooper". The Times. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  5. ↑ Apostolides, Zoë (28 June 2019). "How We Disappeared — the open wounds of a comfort woman". Financial Times. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  6. ↑ ""How We Disappeared"". WorldCat. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  7. ↑ "How We Disappeared". Women's Prize for Fiction. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  8. ↑ Sherwood, Harriet (18 April 2022). "The God of Small Things to Shuggie Bain: the Queen's jubilee book list". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  9. ↑ "The Big Jubilee Read: Books from 2012 to 2022". BBC. 17 April 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
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