Josephine Chia: 3 books

The most significant aspect of living in a kampong was its kampong spirit—or gotong royong. Though deprived of modern comforts like electricity or running water, multi-racial neighbours lived harmoniously with each other in their attap villages, had a wonderful zest for life and a strong sense of community....

Frog Under A Coconut Shell means in Malay, “Katuk Bawah Tempurong”, an idiom which likens someone to a frog that lives under a coconut shell, who believes the shell to be its entire world. It is a reference to the author’s own mother, who although herself uneducated and living in a parochial existence...

A coming-of-age tale of sixteen-year-old Eric Teo, who has a fraught relationship with his parents, particularly his mother, Clara, a successful financial adviser who imposes her values on Eric. Through an inadvertent conversation, Eric learns that he has a paternal grandmother whom no one had...