“Richly atmospheric, Eternal Summer of My Homeland hums with buried grief and secret wonder. Moment by moment, Chew deftly interweaves these keenly observed portraits of Singapore with the luminous interiors of her characters’ hearts. This is a collection to savour.”
–INEZ TAN, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THIS IS WHERE I WON’T BE ALONE
“These heartfelt stories bear the familiar tropes of our island city life—our ubiquitous airport, the unspoken impact of urban development, class difference, corporate pragmatism, foreign labour, climate change—and are keenly drawn with an unpretentious, empathetic eye.”
–CYRIL WONG, MULTI-AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN
“Stories of gentle nuance and emotional sensitivity…a delight.”
–MELISSA DE SILVA, SINGAPORE LITERATURE PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF ‘OTHERS’ IS NOT A RACE
Copyright © 2023 by Agnes Chew
Author photo by Pascal Andernacht. Used with permission.
Cover design by Annisa Lintang Suminar
Published in Singapore by Epigram Books
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.
These pieces were originally published (in either slightly or significantly different form) in the following venues:
“When What Is Linear Meanders” as “Abnormality” in Bosphorus Review of Books, July 2021
“All We Are at the End Is Ash” as “What We Are” in Ricepaper Magazine, 5 April 2021
“For One Minute on Stage” as “Braces” in Litbreak Magazine, 8 August 2022
“Home” in Wildness no. 30, August 2022
“Diary of an Employee” in époque press é-zine no. 12, November 2022
“Did You Know” as “Letter to My Unborn Child” in Necessary Fiction, 15 February 2023
“Don’t Be Foolish” in QLRS vol. 20 no. 3, July 2021
National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing in Publication Data
Name:
Chew, Agnes, 1989–
Title:
Eternal summer of my homeland / Agnes Chew.
Description:
Singapore : Epigram Books, 2023.
Identifier(s):
ISBN 978-981-51-0504-9 (paperback)
ISBN 978-981-51-0505-6 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Short stories, Singaporean (English) Classification: DDC S823—dc23
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
First edition, May 2023.
for my family,
in Singapore and in Germany
CONTENTS
Garden City
When What Is Linear Meanders
All We Are at the End Is Ash
For One Minute on Stage
Home
Under the Same Sky
Alone in Punggol
Diary of an Employee
The Only Constant
Did You Know
Don’t Be Foolish
GARDEN CITY
