The Light Between Us

The Light Between Us

$17.95

Publication Date: 10th September 2024

The Time Traveler's Wife meets Crazy Rich Asians in this speculative romance set against Singapore's tumultuous past. Immersed in Southeast Asian history, time-travel, and an impossible love story,... Read More
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The Time Traveler's Wife meets Crazy Rich Asians in this speculative romance set against Singapore's tumultuous past. Immersed in Southeast Asian history, time-travel, and an impossible love story,... Read More
Description

The Time Traveler's Wife meets Crazy Rich Asians in this speculative romance set against Singapore's tumultuous past. Immersed in Southeast Asian history, time-travel, and an impossible love story, The Light Between Us is perfect for readers of literary historical fiction and modern romantasy fans alike.

At work one night, photography archivist Charlie Sze-Toh receives a misdirected letter from Wang Tian Wei, a 1920s colonial era Chinese photographer. Through a mysterious digital folder and photographic plates, a conversation is sparked, leading to a romance that spans lifetimes.

In his time, Tian Wei scours a turbulent Singapore for his missing friend, Aiko, leading him to the perfumed chambers of a Japanese brothel. Meanwhile, in the modern day, Charlie struggles against a family dynamic dominated by her stepmother, a manipulative matriarch who uses family secrets as bargaining chips. Communication starts to become difficult and Tian Wei’s letters are tinged by the increasing threat of Japanese Occupation. Will one last fate-defying letter from Charlie allow Tian Wei to keep their love alive?

Inspired by her research into Singaporean historical archives, Elaine Chiew weaves Chinese mythology and early 20th century colonial Singapore into this speculative epic.

Details
  • Price: $17.95
  • Pages: 336
  • Carton Quantity: 32
  • Publisher: Neem Tree Press
  • Imprint: Neem Tree Press
  • Publication Date: 10th September 2024
  • Trim Size: 5.1 x 7.8 in
  • ISBN: 9781915584670
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    FICTION / Historical
    FICTION / World Literature / Southeast Asia
    FICTION / Romance / Suspense
    FICTION / Romance / Time Travel
Reviews

"A tender, inventive exploration of diaspora histories, The Light Between Us is a spectral novel in which art joins two star-crossed lovers."Foreword Reviews (starred)

"The Light Between Us is historical fiction raised to a premier level of literary excellence"Midwest Book Review

"This is a genre-defying work that blends in elements of mystery and a nicely over-the-top family drama (...) with references to literature, art, and food makes it even more delightful."Historical Novel Society

"a novel that is at once a love story, a meditation on photography, an elegant historical fiction, and a gripping tale that enchanted me to the very last page."—Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring

"A genre-defying, labyrinthine, and luscious novel that doesn’t pull its philosophical punches as it dares to thrill."—Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go In the Dark

"an intricate, richly layered and meticulously researched historical detective story"—Hannah Vincent, author of The Weaning and She Clown and Other Stories

"Meticulously researched and richly crafted, The Light Between Us dances elegantly between truths and lies, promises and threats, and between a sweet dream and harsh reality."—Mahita Vas, author of A Good Day to Die and It Happened on a Scrabble Sunday

"The Light Between Us does the impossible: capture Singapore’s multilingualism and its early beginnings as a migrant’s country, all in well-measured prose. On top of that, the book is a dreamy treatise of art in its many forms."—Jing-Jing Lee, author of How We Disappeared (longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023)

"In two heart-pounding sittings, I raced through Chiew's deeply moving and seductive story of longing across centuries and space. The way I view a forever love is profoundly changed."—Alka Joshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist

"An unusual love story that explores the power of photography, the influence of colonialism, and the magic of human connection."—Charmaine Wilkinson, author of Black Cake

“Set in Southeast Asia between genres, time, and space, The Light Between Us is a meticulously researched novel which shimmers with yearning and nostalgia as shown through the aperture of an impossible epistolary love affair."—Jemimah Wei, Wallace Stegner fellow and author of The Original Daughter

"a sedimentation of the impossible human yearning to connect across time, its star-crossed intensity as capable of violating as it is of healing. A wondrous feat."—Asako Serizawa, author of Inheritors

Author Bio

Elaine Chiew is the author of The Heartsick Diaspora (recommended in The Guardian, The Singapore Straits Times, BookRiot, and Esquire SG) and compiler/editor of Cooked Up: Food Fiction From Around the World. Her stories have won prizes, notably twice in the Bridport International Short Story Prize, and been anthologised in the U.S., U.K. and Asia, with BBC Radio 4, and in The Best Asian Short Stories 2021. She mentors, teaches creative writing ad hoc, writes freelance and has worked as an independent researcher in the visual arts. She has an M.A. in Asian Art History from Goldsmiths London. In a former career, she was a U.S. trained attorney with a degree from Stanford and worked in New York, London, and Hong Kong. Elaine lives in London, UK.

The Time Traveler's Wife meets Crazy Rich Asians in this speculative romance set against Singapore's tumultuous past. Immersed in Southeast Asian history, time-travel, and an impossible love story, The Light Between Us is perfect for readers of literary historical fiction and modern romantasy fans alike.

At work one night, photography archivist Charlie Sze-Toh receives a misdirected letter from Wang Tian Wei, a 1920s colonial era Chinese photographer. Through a mysterious digital folder and photographic plates, a conversation is sparked, leading to a romance that spans lifetimes.

In his time, Tian Wei scours a turbulent Singapore for his missing friend, Aiko, leading him to the perfumed chambers of a Japanese brothel. Meanwhile, in the modern day, Charlie struggles against a family dynamic dominated by her stepmother, a manipulative matriarch who uses family secrets as bargaining chips. Communication starts to become difficult and Tian Wei’s letters are tinged by the increasing threat of Japanese Occupation. Will one last fate-defying letter from Charlie allow Tian Wei to keep their love alive?

Inspired by her research into Singaporean historical archives, Elaine Chiew weaves Chinese mythology and early 20th century colonial Singapore into this speculative epic.

  • Price: $17.95
  • Pages: 336
  • Carton Quantity: 32
  • Publisher: Neem Tree Press
  • Imprint: Neem Tree Press
  • Publication Date: 10th September 2024
  • Trim Size: 5.1 x 7.8 in
  • ISBN: 9781915584670
  • Format: Paperback
  • BISACs:
    FICTION / Historical
    FICTION / World Literature / Southeast Asia
    FICTION / Romance / Suspense
    FICTION / Romance / Time Travel

"A tender, inventive exploration of diaspora histories, The Light Between Us is a spectral novel in which art joins two star-crossed lovers."Foreword Reviews (starred)

"The Light Between Us is historical fiction raised to a premier level of literary excellence"Midwest Book Review

"This is a genre-defying work that blends in elements of mystery and a nicely over-the-top family drama (...) with references to literature, art, and food makes it even more delightful."Historical Novel Society

"a novel that is at once a love story, a meditation on photography, an elegant historical fiction, and a gripping tale that enchanted me to the very last page."—Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring

"A genre-defying, labyrinthine, and luscious novel that doesn’t pull its philosophical punches as it dares to thrill."—Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go In the Dark

"an intricate, richly layered and meticulously researched historical detective story"—Hannah Vincent, author of The Weaning and She Clown and Other Stories

"Meticulously researched and richly crafted, The Light Between Us dances elegantly between truths and lies, promises and threats, and between a sweet dream and harsh reality."—Mahita Vas, author of A Good Day to Die and It Happened on a Scrabble Sunday

"The Light Between Us does the impossible: capture Singapore’s multilingualism and its early beginnings as a migrant’s country, all in well-measured prose. On top of that, the book is a dreamy treatise of art in its many forms."—Jing-Jing Lee, author of How We Disappeared (longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023)

"In two heart-pounding sittings, I raced through Chiew's deeply moving and seductive story of longing across centuries and space. The way I view a forever love is profoundly changed."—Alka Joshi, New York Times bestselling author of The Henna Artist

"An unusual love story that explores the power of photography, the influence of colonialism, and the magic of human connection."—Charmaine Wilkinson, author of Black Cake

“Set in Southeast Asia between genres, time, and space, The Light Between Us is a meticulously researched novel which shimmers with yearning and nostalgia as shown through the aperture of an impossible epistolary love affair."—Jemimah Wei, Wallace Stegner fellow and author of The Original Daughter

"a sedimentation of the impossible human yearning to connect across time, its star-crossed intensity as capable of violating as it is of healing. A wondrous feat."—Asako Serizawa, author of Inheritors

Elaine Chiew is the author of The Heartsick Diaspora (recommended in The Guardian, The Singapore Straits Times, BookRiot, and Esquire SG) and compiler/editor of Cooked Up: Food Fiction From Around the World. Her stories have won prizes, notably twice in the Bridport International Short Story Prize, and been anthologised in the U.S., U.K. and Asia, with BBC Radio 4, and in The Best Asian Short Stories 2021. She mentors, teaches creative writing ad hoc, writes freelance and has worked as an independent researcher in the visual arts. She has an M.A. in Asian Art History from Goldsmiths London. In a former career, she was a U.S. trained attorney with a degree from Stanford and worked in New York, London, and Hong Kong. Elaine lives in London, UK.