If I Could Tell You
Lee Jing-Jing
Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2013
ISBN: 9789814398626

The residents of Block 204 have a few months before their building is torn down, before they are scattered throughout the island into smaller, assigned flats. For some, the tragedy that occurs during their last days is a reminder of old violence, aged wounds. For others, new opportunities transpire. If I could Tell You is about silence, the keeping and breaking of it, and what comes after.

Children struggling through school to live up to unrealistic expectations. Construction workers, who have come from far and wide, only to be housed in cramped metal bunks. People taking their own lives, driven to edge by their mounting debts.

Singapore has been described as a "thriving, cosmopolitan city", yet beneath its shining lights, lies a true tale of the hardships that its people face everyday.

If I Could Tell You delves into the hard truths about living in this bustling city through the residents of Block 204. From owing money to loan sharks to collecting scraps for a living, each one of us can find our personal story told in one of these chapters.