How We Disappeared

By Jing-Jing Lee,

Book cover of How We Disappeared

Book description

Shortlisted for the 2020 Singapore Literature Prize

Longlisted for the HWA Debut Crown

Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked. Only three survivors remain, one of them a tiny child.

In a neighbouring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is bundled into the back…

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Why read it?

1 author picked How We Disappeared as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The story of women trafficked into military brothels is one of the untold histories of war, as is the use of rape as a military weapon. The victims were often too ashamed of their wartime experiences, or too frightened of being accused of collaboration to speak out and as a result, the women’s voices and their traumas are silenced. Jing Jing Lee’s novel is about one such moment – that of Chinese women in Singapore forced to work as prostitutes for the Japanese soldiers. It is a masterpiece of storytelling. Evocative and heart rending, it tells of one woman’s survival…

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