Showing results by narrator "Benjamin Chow" in All Categories

I got myself a Twitter Account to gain supporters. I'm furious that my arch enemy, Michael, is doing the same. Oh man, he's everywhere—Facebook, IM, YouTube, you name it. But what he doesn't realise is how popular I am. My secret weapon? My sister WPI (Whiny, Pesky and Irritating) and her two-girl band. She's so popular these days it's good to be her big brother. I'm kind of sad that my best friend, Alvin, is also running against me in the contest, but hey, may the best man win. Psst…I've got a few tricks up my sleeve.

Ismael, a transplanted Singaporean, lives on a bucolic suburban Brisbane street. His job is to decide whether asylum-seekers get to stay in the country, a dilemma that never fails to remind him of his own immigrant status. But then his life begins to take on the hue of a nightmare: his neighbour inexplicably commits suicide, his wife dies of cancer, his daughter abandons him for the United States, and his Siamese cat goes missing.

Enter the world of Holden Heng, the not-so-lucky-in-love protagonist of this comic realist novel that documents social currents transforming the Lion City. Described as the most Singaporean of Singapore writers, Robert Yeo presents an immensely entertaining story of a typical Singaporean man's escapades with three very different women. Will he ever find true love?

A mother and son have to deal with the consequences when she makes an embarrassing mistake at the shopping mall one afternoon.

Raj, a resident at a halfway house, is ready to take his first steps in a new job after months of rehab, but will Life have other plans?

Adjonis Keh (the "d" is silent) is a successful actor who apparently has everything: looks, adoration, a shelf filled with acting awards, and all the vanilla yogurt he can eat (thanks to a hefty endorsement deal). He also has a dark secret: he can't act.

The 13 stories in this collection explores our discomfiture, our unease about the things we cannot see, understand or hope to easily overcome. Sometimes they are the things that threaten our humanity; yet at other times nothing appears to be of a greater threat to humankind than our very own humanity.

Newly-wed Sheena gets her new apartment at a steal, only to realize that she has gotten more than she bargained for when she finds a box of strange items hidden under some old toys.

Three friends board an overnight sleeper bus in Japan, little knowing the sinister bus journey they will ensure should they stay awake throughout. Chills and thrills in this short story from the Storytel Epigram Horror Competition.

When his diaries are stolen and published, Amos thinks his world is coming to an end. But what he doesn't realise is that he's going to become really famous! Adoring fan mail, girls throwing themselves at his feet and, with 5,000 friends on Facebook, yes… FINALLY! Life looks to be turning around! But when a TV Director offers to adapt his diaries into a TV show, Amos learns that a new boy will take over from him in becoming Singapore's Most Famous Toilet Diarist! Filled with insane jealousy and a desire to right a wrong, Amos vows to do all that he can to stop the show. But will he succeed?

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. This is 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.

Derrick can't believe his luck when he rekindles a romance with ex-girlfriend Yifan. But Yifan remains aloof and distant, eventually confiding to Derrick that in her hometown of Ipoh, she discovered that she is actually a fox spirit with mystical powers. But Derrick isn't the only person who has fallen under Yifan's spell. Unbeknownst to him, Tien Chen, a man with an unhealthy obsession with fire, has also been dating her.

In the Nation, citizenship is competitively earned, and the sting of failure strikes swift. The smallest professional blemish may spell demotion or even deportation to offshore labour communities called Depositories, while the affluent are insured against all misfortune and can do no wrong. Santhosh is a Transient student hoping to ace the Civil Primaries and make Citizen the following year, when his father is suddenly deported and State agents murder his guardian's entire family.

Kevin is a young man without a soul, holidaying in Tokyo; Mr Five, the enigmatic kappa, is the man he so happens to meet. Little does Kevin know that kappas—the river demons of Japanese folklore—desire nothing more than the souls of other humans. Set between Singapore and Japan, Kappa Quartet is split into eight discrete sections, tracing the rippling effects of this chance encounter across a host of other characters, connected and bound to one another in ways both strange and serendipitous.

A woman learns of a friend's illness and wonders if she ever truly knew him. A boy who sees ghosts heeds the advice of a fortune-teller, with surprising consequences. A girl wakes up and realises everybody in her Bedok neighbourhood has vanished. From Cyril Wong, award-winning author of The Last Lesson of Mrs de Souza, comes another beautiful book about characters in crisis, with two stories crossing intriguingly into creative autobiography.

Sally Bong is the typical do-gooder. But her journey as an exemplary citizen of Singapore is put into question when she meets people on the margins, upending everything she has learned in school. In a follow-up to the hilarious Let's Give It Up for Gimme Lao!, Sebastian Sim delves deeper into a nation's psyche with more shrewd humour than ever before.

This diary began as Mum's New Year's resolution to get me to write. She told me to write when I am doing my big business. "Five to eight minutes max!" she said. "I don't want you to develop piles!" And so my writing in the bathroom began. My entries started with the boring old stuff…then Mum got this new job as a writer and, following her around, I got to do fun stuff, like ogle at deformed frogs, see into the future with a fortune-telling parrot and wow at a life-sized F1 car made of chocolate!

I write my diary in the toilet to get away from my troubles, like having to compete with Michael, the bully who's in the swim team with me, and falling out with my best friend, Alvin, over a girl! My diary goes wherever I go as there are those who want to read it. For I know secrets, like how to break my sister's curse and how babies are made…

Death of a Perm Sec is a mystery about the demise of the permanent-secretary of the housing ministry, Chow Sze Teck, accused of accepting millions of dollars in bribes over his career. Set in 1980's Singapore, the novel examines the civil servant's death, which first appears to be suicide by a cocktail of alcohol, morphine and Valium. But upon investigation by a CID inspector who might not be what he seems, the family discovers there may be far more sinister circumstances behind his death, that reach to the very top of government.