By Jing-Jing Lee
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Set in and around soon-to-be-demolished Block 204 in Singapore, If I Could Tell You, by Jing-Jing Lee, is a series of vignettes of ordinary people going about their everyday lives in the city state.

A sudden tragedy loosely sews the narratives of the building’s various disparate inhabitants together, creating an overall portrait—and a likely unexpected one—of Singapore today.
If I Could Tell You captures community in a changing Singapore, with each character offering a glimpse into a certain world. Without descending into cliche, Lee juggles stories of various minorities, and through the prism of their lives we get an idea of what Singapore as a whole is like.
The poignant story of the tragedy is worthy of a lengthier treatment of its own. Ah Tee, a resident who has worked at the base of Block 204 in a kopitiam for most of his life, simply can’t face his future. “What happened was we didn’t see. We never saw him,” says Alex, a lesbian resident, who herself endures a bout of homelessness.
In fact, each of the characters and their stories in this restrained novella is fleshy enough to leave the reader wanting far more. Alex, for instance, manages to hold down a job as she navigates her family’s rejection, and endures the very same invisibility as Ah Tee as she hides her situation from her coworkers and customers at a fancy cafe. “I imagined they wouldn’t want a homeless person making their morning cappuccino, handling the food orders. No one ever asked though and I realised that no one looked at other people the way they looked at themselves. Not half as close.”
The Bangladeshi immigrant worker, meanwhile, feels incredibly lucky to wind up in Block 204 after living in a container, and though he works hard at a cleaning job Singaporeans don’t want, feels the very opposite of invisible. His race and presence invites the hatred of locals:
“I try to ignore them, some of the others don’t even notice, but I see the people on the streets quietly wishing we weren’t there and occupying the air and space on their island. This wonderful country.”
There’s the elderly lady whose age hides a life marred by an horrific loss under Japanese occupation. “Tch, I’ve seen worse. When the Japanese were here. Much worse,” she says. And the brave housewife who decides to emerge from invisibility to learn English at the local community college.
Read If I Could Tell You to have a light shone onto the invisible lives of those for whom the glitz and glamour of Singapore’s skyscapers and malls is quite irrelevant.
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BLOOD AND SILK: POWER AND CONFLICT IN MODERN SOUTHEAST ASIA
By Michael Vatikiotis
Blood and Silk is an erudite romp through Southeast Asia’s modern political and economic history in the hands of experienced regional hand Michael Vatikiotis. ... more
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GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR: ON THE TRACKS OF THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR
By Paul Theroux
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star: On the Tracks of the Great Railway Bazaar sees travel writer Paul Theroux return to the same train lines and destinations that he visited more than 30 years earlier. ... more
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HELLO SHADOWLANDS: INSIDE THE METH FIEFDOMS, REBEL HIDEOUTS AND BOMB-SCARRED PARTY TOWNS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
By Patrick Winn
In Hello Shadowlands: Inside the Meth Fiefdoms, Rebel Hideouts and Bomb-Scarred Party Towns of Southeast Asia , Patrick Winn crawls right into the underbellies of selected criminal (and colourful) subcultures across Southeast Asia. If you’re looking to read something to balance out endless Instagram snapshots of sunny Southeast Asian beaches dotted with umbrella-stabbed coconuts, this dark book is it. ... more
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MARCO POLO DIDN’T GO THERE
By Rolf Potts
In 2008-published Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, American travel writer Rolf Potts presents an anthology of previously published works drawn from a decade of travel around the world. The pieces touch on a raft of issues, such as backpacker culture, overtourism, press trips and ecotourism and are an interesting and at times very funny page turner. ... more
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MY LIFE WITH BOB: FLAWED HEROINE KEEPS BOOK OF BOOKS, PLOT ENSUES
By Pamela Paul
Pamela Paul has kept a Book of Books (Bob) listing all the books she has read, or attempted to read, for 28 years. My Life With Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues, is Paul’s memoir of her life as a reader. ... more
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OVERBOOKED: THE EXPLODING BUSINESS OF TRAVEL AND TOURISM
By Elizabeth Becker
Elizabeth Becker’s Overbooked is part reportage, part travelogue and part annoying—not all in equal measure thankfully—and remains a useful primer for the reader with an interest in where the global tourism train is taking us. ... more
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PACIFIC: THE OCEAN OF THE FUTURE
By Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester’s 2015-published Pacific: The Ocean of the Future (or, in other editions, Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators and Fading Empires ) is an erudite series of compelling historical vignettes that together create a colourful portrait of the Pacific Ocean and its modern past. ... more
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THE GLAMOUR OF STRANGENESS
By Jamie James
Erudite, colourful and packed with intriguing anecdotes, Jamie James’ Glamour of Strangeness: Artists and the Last Age of the Exotic is a romp through a bygone era, studying the lives of six artists who left their homelands to pursue creativity elsewhere. ... more
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THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR
By Paul Theroux
“Anything is possible on a train: a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night’s sleep,
and strangers’ monologues framed like Russian short stories,” writes Paul Theroux in his 1975-published classic, The Great Railway Bazaar. ... more
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THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS
By Elizabeth Gilbert
Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love wasn't our cup of tea, but The Signature of All Things is another beast entirely. ... more
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