Singapore Noir
Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan (ed.)
Singapore: Monsoon Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789814423694

Beneath Singapore's sparkling veneer is a country teeming with shadows. Explore the city-state's forgotten back alleys, red-light districts, kelongs and gambling dens with 14 illustrious writers, three of them Singapore Literature Prize winners. This exciting anthology - compiled by US-based Singaporean author Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan and part of the award-winning Noir series developed by Akashic Books in New York - promises to uncover a side of Singapore rarely explored in literature.

A Certain Exposure
Jolene Tan
Singapore: Epigram Books, 2014
ISBN: 9789810788285

Satirical and sympathetic, political and personal, A Certain Exposure traces the adolescences of twin brothers Andrew and Brian, culminating in the explosive events leading to Andrew's tragic death.

A classic coming-of-age tale doubled across two vividly individual brothers, who struggle to navigate a complex tangle of relationships and coercive forces, cinematically interwoven with the yearnings and fears of an ensemble of mothers, fathers, cousins, friends and lovers both false and true. This wide-ranging debut beautifully presents the resonances and the ghosts of lost possibilities, as well as a gripping story of hope and betrayal.

Mobilizing Gay Singapore: Rights and Resistance in an Authoritarian State
Lynette J. Chua
Singapore: NUS Press, 2014
ISBN: 9789971698157

From private meetings in living rooms in the 1990s to the emergence of annual rallies and decriminalization campaigns in the past six years, Singapore's gay rights activists have sought equality and justice in a state that does not recognise their rights to seek protection of their civil and political liberties. In her groundbreaking book, Mobilizing Gay Singapore, Lynette Chua tells the history of the gay rights movement in Singapore and asks what a social movement looks like under these circumstances. She examines the movement's emergence, development, strategies, and tactics, as well as the roles of law and rights in social processes.

Chua uses in-depth interviews with gay activists, observations of the movement's activities, movement documents, government statements, and media reports. She shows how activists deployed (and still deploy) "pragmatic resistance" to gain visibility and support, and tackle political norms that suppress dissent, while avoiding direct confrontations with the law.