Book Talk – Jeremy Tiang: State of Emergency

Acclaimed translator Jeremy Tiang joins us to discuss his debut novel and winner of the Singapore Literature Prize State of Emergency.

Siew Li leaves her husband and children to fight for freedom in the jungles of Malaya. Decades later, a Malaysian journalist returns to her homeland to uncover the truth of a massacre committed during the Emergency, while Siew Li’s son uncovers the truth of his family’s past. Jeremy Tiang’s debut novel State of Emergency follows an extended family from the 1940s to the present day as they navigate the choppy political currents of the region.