Latest news with #JemimahWei
Straits Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
The Straits Times Weekly Bestsellers July 26
(From left) Singaporean writer Jemimah Wei's debut novel The Original Daughter, I Am Not Good Enough by Ismail Gafoor and Low Shi Ping, The Day I Forgot My Flag by Neil Johnson, illustrated by Vincent Lee. Fiction: Singaporean writer Jemimah Wei's debut novel The Original Daughter. PHOTO: WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON 1. (2) The Passengers On The Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa; translated by Allison Markin Powell 2. (1) The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei 3. (-) Strange Pictures by Uketsu; translated by Jim Rion 4. (5) What God Took Your Legs Away by Wahid Al Mamun 5. (7) Strange Houses by Uketsu; translated by Jim Rion 6. (-) The Dilemmas Of Working Women by Fumio Yamamoto; translated by Brian Bergstrom 7. (-) Homesick by nor 8. (-) The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 9. (9) The Wizard's Bakery by Gu Byeong-mo; translated by Jamie Chang 10. (-) Maybe This Is Love: A Novel by Maria Mahat Non-fiction: I Am Not Good Enough by Ismail Gafoor and Low Shi Ping. PHOTO: FOCUS PUBLISHING 1. (-) I Am Not Good Enough by Ismail Gafoor and Low Shi Ping 2. (1) Why Palestine? Reflections From Singapore by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah 3. (2) Elevate Your Assets, Elevate Your Wealth by Kelvin Fong 4. (-) The First Fools: B-Sides Of Lee Kuan Yew's A-Team edited by Peh Shing Huei 5. (-) The Psychology Of Money by Morgan Housel 6. (-) Revenge Of The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell 7. (7) How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle by Ray Dalio 8. (-) From Beirut To Jerusalem: 40th Anniversary Edition by Dr Ang Swee Chai 9. (-) My Father Is Police Lah! by Rowena Hawkins 10. (-) The Last Fools: The Eight Immortals Of Lee Kuan Yew edited by Peh Shing Huei Children's: The Day I Forgot My Flag by Neil Johnson, illustrated by Vincent Lee. PHOTO: EPIGRAM BOOKS 1. (1) The Day I Forgot My Flag by Neil Johnson, illustrated by Vincent Lee 2. (9) Never Thought I'd End Up Here by Ann Liang 3. (4) The World's Worst Superheroes by David Walliams 4. (6) Percy Jackson And The Olympians: Wrath Of The Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan 5. (8) How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell 6. (-) Percy Jackson And The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 7. (-) A Good Girl's Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson 8. (-) We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han 9. (3) Big Jim Begins (Dog Man 13) by Dav Pilkey 10. (-) Powerless by Lauren Roberts
South China Morning Post
21-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Novelist Jemimah Wei is telling a different story of Singapore
Jemimah Wei remembers being struck recently by a simple encounter on the American book tour for her debut novel, The Original Daughter. A reader, having enjoyed Rachel Heng's The Great Reclamation (2023), told her he was eager to dive into another story set in Singapore. For Wei, it was a sign: fiction from the city state was gaining traction, and people wanted more. 'It's just great news for me to hear that someone read one Singapore story and is now interested in other stories from Singapore,' says Wei via Zoom from New York during a break from promoting her book. 'I dream of a world where there is, like, an immense plurality of stories from Asia. It shouldn't be a case where somebody from a specific background can only write one type of story. 'It's amazing that there are more and more writers who are coming forward and more and more writers who see other writers do it and think, 'I could also do it.'' Debut novel, The Original Daughter, by Jemimah Wei. Photo: Handout For 32-year-old Wei, her own watershed moment came in 2015, during a 10-week creative-writing course in Singapore, when she met Malaysian author Tash Aw (The Harmony Silk Factory, 2005). 'I was like, OK, he's Malaysian and he's a writer. Why can't someone from Singapore be a writer?' she says. 'So I went out and tried to do it.' Published this April by Doubleday Books, an imprint of Knopf Doubleday and a division of Penguin Random House, The Original Daughter explores the complexities of identity, belonging and familial bonds through the lives of two sisters. At its heart are Genevieve Yang and Arin – half-sisters but, in reality, cousins – bound by a shared history yet divided by secrets. Together, they navigate the shifting dynamics of their relationship across time and distance. One of the novel's central ideas emerged from Wei's fascination with the concept of a 'return sibling' – in this case, Arin, a cousin from the secret family of a grandfather who is unceremoniously dumped on the Yang family after the old man's death. 'It was extremely common in the generation right before my own, where you would have people give away family members or take people in,' says Wei. 'People don't talk about that very much. All those silences were things that I really took note of when I was growing up. The premise of this novel about a girl being given away into a family is something that I was always very interested in.
South China Morning Post
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
This week in PostMag: Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolding and a Bali bone healer
As I read our cover feature this week, I started thinking about the overlap between a bamboo scaffolding master's craft and my own as the editor of a magazine. Hear me out for a second. They're both tactile endeavours, requiring craftsmanship and an attention to the little things. Each of us takes building blocks – words and images or poles and ties – to construct something greater than the sum of its parts. And most of all, both have an unmistakable human touch. 'There's always a human hand behind it,' says a bamboo scaffolding master in Christopher DeWolf's piece. It's a line that's stuck with me. Advertisement DeWolf's story takes us first to Venice, where a crew from Hong Kong has wrapped the courtyard of a historic villa in bamboo for this year's Biennale of Architecture, and back here to our own city, where officials have proposed replacing bamboo with steel even while other countries are just realising the natural material's huge potential. Elsewhere in our features, Winnie Chung chats with Singaporean novelist Jemimah Wei, whose debut The Original Daughter is already making waves internationally. The up-and-coming author shows a side of Singapore apart from the glitz and glam the city state is known for, focusing on the 'claustrophobic intimacy of public-housing life'. Wei toiled over the novel for more than 10 years, estimating that she wrote well over a million words. Quite the endeavour indeed. Back in Venice, Zhaoyin Feng meets the Chinese migrants now staffing many of the city's coffee bars. It's a story that dives into the question of authenticity and cultural identity, played out through espresso pulls and Aperol spritzes. My favourite bit? Learning that one young barista honed her coffee-making skills via YouTube and Douyin, a thoroughly modern-day twist. Then we leave the lagoon for the Swiss Alps. In Seewis im Prättigau, Victoria Burrows joins villagers guiding flower-crowned cows down from the high pastures at summer's end. There are bells and brass bands and half the town lining the streets. I'm particularly intrigued by the ancillary events. I might not qualify for the international beard competition but I'd happily judge alpine cheeses. Advertisement And finally, in Bali, Ian Lloyd Neubauer meets Mangku Sudarsana, a traditional healer known for bone setting. One firm knee, a twist and years of pain disappear in seconds. Feeling like a man reborn, Neubauer uses his new-found energy to explore the island's less-trodden paths, finding there's still plenty to discover beyond traffic-choked Seminyak.
Straits Times
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
The Straits Times Weekly Bestsellers July 19
(From left) Singaporean writer Jemimah Wei's debut novel The Original Daughter, Why Palestine? Reflections From Singapore by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah, The Day I Forgot My Flag by Neil Johnson. Fiction: Singaporean writer Jemimah Wei's debut novel The Original Daughter. PHOTO: WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON 1. (3) The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei 2. (1) The Passengers On The Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa; translated by Allison Markin Powell 3. (-) Mirror Monster Dagger Doom by Cleo Cheng 4. (-) Pukul Habis by David Boey 5. (-) What God Took Your Legs Away by Wahid Al Mamun 6. (-) The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng 7. (2) Strange Houses by Uketsu; translated by Jim Rion 8. (8) Madonna In A Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali 9. (-) The Wizard's Bakery by Gu Byeong-mo; translated by Jamie Chang 10. (-) Days At The Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa; translated by Eric Ozawa Non-fiction: Why Palestine? Reflections From Singapore by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah. PHOTO: EPIGRAM BOOKS 1. (2) Why Palestine? Reflections From Singapore by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah 2. (1) Elevate Your Assets, Elevate Your Wealth by Kelvin Fong 3. (9) Atomic Habits by James Clear 4. (-) Start With Why by Simon Sinek 5. (4) Ink And Influence: An OB Markers Sequel by Cheong Yip Seng 6. (5) The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins 7. (-) How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle by Ray Dalio 8. (-) Take Back Control Of Your Money by Dawn Cher 9. (-) Empire Of AI by Karen Hao 10. (-) Agentic Artificial Intelligence by Pascal Bornet and Jochen Wirtz Children's: The Day I Forgot My Flag by Neil Johnson, illustrated by Vincent Lee. PHOTO: EPIGRAM BOOKS 1. (1) The Day I Forgot My Flag by Neil Johnson, illustrated by Vincent Lee 2. (3) National Geographic Kids Almanac 2026 by National Geographic Kids 3. (7) Big Jim Begins (Dog Man 13) by Dav Pilkey 4. (5) The World's Worst Superheroes by David Walliams 5. (-) The Koala Who Could by Rachel Bright 6. (-) Percy Jackson And The Olympians: Wrath Of The Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan 7. (-) Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling 8. (2) How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell 9. (4) Never Thought I'd End Up Here by Ann Liang 10. (-) Sunrise On The Reaping (The Hunger Games) by Suzanne Collins
Straits Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
The Straits Times Weekly Bestsellers July 5
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox (From left) The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei, Elevate Your Assets, Elevate Your Wealth by Kelvin Fong and National Geographic Kids Almanac 2026 by National Geographic Kids. Fiction: Singaporean writer Jemimah Wei's debut novel is titled The Original Daughter. PHOTO: WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON 1. (3) The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei 2. (1) The Passengers On The Hankyu Line by Hiro Arikawa; translated by Allison Markin Powell 3. (2) Strange Houses by Uketsu; translated by Jim Rion 4. (-) The Second Chance Convenience Store by Kim Ho-yeon; translated by Janet Hong 5. (4) Strange Pictures by Uketsu; translated by Jim Rion 6. (6) The Wizard's Bakery by Gu Byeong-mo; translated by Jamie Chang 7. (-) The Housemaid by Freida McFadden 8. (7) To The Moon by Jang Ryujin; translated by Sean Lin Halbert 9. (10) Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid 10. (-) The Calico Cat At The Chibineko Kitchen by Yuta Takahashi; translated by Cat Anderson Non-fiction: Roads To Chinese Modernity: Civilisation And National Culture by Wang Gungwu. PHOTO: WORLD SCIENTIFIC 1. (1) Elevate Your Assets, Elevate Your Wealth by Kelvin Fong 2. (2) Why Palestine? Reflections From Singapore by Walid Jumblatt Abdullah 3. (-) Roads To Chinese Modernity: Civilisation And National Culture by Wang Gungwu 4. (4) How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle by Ray Dalio 5. (-) The Woke Salaryman Crash Course On Capitalism & Money by The Woke Salaryman 6. (-) The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins 7. (6) The Psychology Of Money by Morgan Housel 8. (-) Prisoners Of Geography by Tim Marshall 9. (-) The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 10. (-) Empire Of AI by Karen Hao Children's: National Geographic Kids Almanac 2026 by National Geographic Kids. PHOTO: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 1. (-) How To Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell 2. (1) National Geographic Kids Almanac 2026 by National Geographic Kids 3. (8) The Lion Inside by Rachel Bright 4. (5) The World's Worst Superheroes by David Walliams 5. (-) The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery 6. (-) Big Jim Begins (Dog Man 13) by Dav Pilkey 7. (2) Never Thought I'd End Up Here by Ann Liang 8. (-) The Pandas Who Promised by Rachel Bright 9. (-) Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter 10. (-) Let's Celebrate NDP! by Sharon Koh
