Nigel Barley
Singapore: Monsoon Books, 2011
ISBN: 9789814358422
Gardens are magical places - images of Nature and Culture, models of paradise, spaces where plants live in war and peace, co-operation and competition. It is 1942 and Singapore is Syonanto, part of the Japanese Empire, where violence and starvation stalk the streets, but in the Singapore Botanic Gardens, a bizarre tranquility reigns between warring nations and even love awakes as old identities melt away in the heady atmosphere of the Orchid House.
From its unique perspective and with a mixture of humour and romance, The Devil's Garden pictures a formative moment in the emergence of Singapore, where loyalties are less secure than those of the official histories and truth is anything but simple.
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