A reclusive young boy stumbles upon his father's diary. Filled with drawings, photos and anecdotes, the diary reveals an alpine world that his father once inhabited as a child: where tribes were fashioned by tree spirits; animals could be spoken to; fleas danced; and the moon and stars were guiding lights in darkling forests. His father's world was alive with birdsong and hidden spirits, serene yet fleeting-but it all changed when he befriended two bears. Bewitching and timeless, award-winning Taiwanese author Chang Ying-Tai's The Bear Whispers to Me is a poignant forest fable about the vivid beauty of the natural world, childhood, loss and the transient nature of time. (Winner of the 2015 Lennox Robinson Literary Award)

The Bear Whispers to Me: The Story of a Bear and a Boy

Chang, Ying-Tai

Literature & Fiction

Balestier Press

On the first day of school, a young girl shows up and discovers she is the only pupil in school. All the teachers want to teach her what they know but they start fighting for her attention. They fight so much that they do not notice the girl creeping out of the classroom... Where does she go? Who will she meet? And will she learn anything new in the world outside school? Beautifully illustrated by Taiwanese author Liu Hsukung (Winner of the 2014 Chen Bochui International Prize for Children's Literature), this picture book tells a simple yet delightful story about a girl's adventures beyond the classroom and shows how learning can be exciting and fun wherever you are.

The Only Pupil in the School

Children's Books

Liu, Hsukung

Science, Nature & How It Works

It is because of Mr Zibra that the Caramel Pudding Symphony Orchestra, a previously unknown orchestra, has been elevated to the status of World No. 3. As a result, Mr Zibra gets to attend the best parties and food, causing him to be selfish, arrogant and miserly. One evening deserted by his limo driver, Mr Zibra is left stranded out in the cold. He comes across an orchestra played by children and immediately dislikes their brand of music. However, Mr Zibra finds himself in for a rude shock… (Winner of the Taiwan Golden Tripod Award)

The Chief Cellist

Wang, Wenhua

Mr Horton's Violin

Mr Horton has fashioned a violin out of a magic tree. But just who is worthy of playing it? The Prince won’t do, and neither will the famous conductor Mr Octave, nor the richest man in town. When Sireli’s gang of thirty-three thieves learn of the news, they decide to kidnap Mr Horton and steal the violin... (Winner of the Golden Tripod Award.)

An Australian woman, burdened by the original sin of her Caucasian ancestors, and a Taiwanese woman, haunted by the memories of 100 years of conflict in her homeland, meet as backpackers while travelling in South Korea. As they live and travel together, two women in flight, one from the East and the other from the West, struggle to find a way out of their personal dilemmas. * * * Shortly after the dawn of the new millennium, Judy and Jiaying are thrown together in a youth hostel in Seoul, both having escaped long-term relationships. Their arrival in Seoul in the first year of the 21st century coincides with passionate anti-American demonstrations on the streets of the city, as South Koreans protest against US troops being stationed in their country, western hegemony and the manipulations of arms dealers. Anti-American sentiment spreads like wildfire. Judy's parents hail from Britain and France, meet in Paris during a volatile period in French history - the student movement of 1968 - and later migrate to Australia to begin a new life. After her parents part, Judy abandons racial and cultural prejudice and, while studying in Tokyo, falls in love with Zhou, a Chinese student from Beijing. But this stormy relationship eventually culminates in violence and Judy, fleeing its demise, escapes to Seoul. Jiaying's family are from war-torn China, which, in the 19th century had suffered invasion and colonisation by the British and French; in the 20th century had been occupied by the Japanese, under the pretext of liberating Asia from Western imperialists; and was then convulsed by a Communist revolution propped up by the Russians. Having both fought in and sought to escape the wars, Jiaying's grandparents and parents eventually settle in Taiwan, carrying with them the scars of a century of conflict. Attempting to begin a new life on this island of exiles, they struggle to come to terms with the humiliation that generations of Chinese people had suffered. Jiaying, twelve years older than Judy, becomes her only confidante, as the younger woman pours out her frustrations. Judy still loves her Chinese boyfriend, but could never really understand him. In Judy's painful struggle to come to terms with the past, Jiaying is reminded of her own history, from which she still seeks an escape. Nationalism that has wounded and distorted history time and again over the last hundred years; violence as a consequence of sexuality repressed by Confucianism ... as Jiaying began her relationship with a European man, these things had begun to seep into her life. Judy's story gives Jiaying a channel to sort out her own thoughts and gradually begin the healing process. And yet, even as the women forge new paths through the emotional jungle of their lives, violence once again shatters the potential for peace of mind. * * * "Masked Dolls is an unusual look at how the metaphorical shrinking of the world affects people at an individual level. It considers a number of consequences, particularly for women: the novel never fails to remind us that we live in a patriarchal society which will not tolerate interracial relationships. Masked Dolls is one of those rare books which after reading reveals itself to be greater than the sum of its parts. Brutal, intense, fascinating."--- The Writes of Woman.

Masked Dolls

Shih, Chiung-Yu

Literary

Through misunderstanding, sympathy, reconciliation and love, seven schoolchildren forged an abiding friendship in their hometown Penghu, a cluster of islands in the Taiwan Strait. Brought together by their Arts and Crafts teacher, the children learned to cherish their friendship and to understand their cultural roots. At their farewell party, they promised to come back for a reunion twenty years later, on the evening of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Now working in Canada, Glasses is coming home to keep his promise. Penghu's landscapes - waves, fields, cows, coral-stone walls, horsetail trees and gaillardias - summon back memories at school, in the pottery workshop, and on a trip to the Isle of Jibei. As he makes his way towards the old workshop, Glasses relives those memories and contemplates the meaning of home. The Taiwanese writer Li Tong's award-winning novel, Again I See the Gaillardias, is a deeply moving story about friendship, growing up, homecoming, self-identification and local attachments.

Again I See the Gaillardias

Teen & Young Adult

Li, Tong

Daniel Fang’s mid-thirties are marked by the birth of his daughter and the death of a childhood friend. His daughter’s birth and infancy reminds him of his own boyhood, his friend's death of the good times he had with back in their old neighbourhood. They were the kids from the wrong side of the temple, kids who grew up in the night market and next to the red light district. Their parents didn’t like them visiting the market by themselves and expressly forbade them from taking a single step into Carnation Lane. But the appearance of a chained orangutan in a night market spectacle the year the three friends turned twelve convinced them to defy the parental ban. While the adults were away at a protest against Taiwan’s endless Martial Law, they stole into the banned zone, released the beast from bondage and led it upstream, on a quest to find the fabled zoo. The memory of this all-but-forgotten childhood experience comes back after news of his friend’s suicide. It seems to Daniel Fang that the two events must somehow be connected. A cryptologist by training, he decides to investigate, hoping to solve the mystery of his friend’s death and decode the message contained within the memory that has shaped, even warped, their later lives.  

The Tree Fort on Carnation Lane

Ho, Horace

Yang Tianyi is a “leftover woman” and under pressure to find a husband. She is attractive and intelligent but knows little of the world, and finally makes a disastrous marriage to a man, Wang Lian. At the end of the 1980s, in Tiananmen Square, she meets her love Hua Zheng again. However, after the political turmoil, Hua Zheng is framed as one of the perpetrators of the disturbances, and is sentenced to prison. Set against the background of China’s turbulent 1980s and 1990s, Crystal Wedding is a novel of searing emotional honesty. (Winner of English Pen Translates Award).

Crystal Wedding

Xu, Xiaobin

After the tragic death of Liur’s mother, her father, a thwarted artist working as a doctor in the family hospital, is overcome with grief. He goes to study in America, leaving six-year-old Liur in the care of her grandparents, promising to return with a special doll for her. But instead of studying, her father travels to the Andes, where he meets a mysterious ventriloquist who takes him as a pupil. Five years later, he returns home, bringing with him one of the ventriloquist’s dolls. But it is not a present for Liur; instead, it becomes a menacing presence in the house, causing strife within the family. After observing her father performing strange rituals with the doll, Liur must find a way to defeat her demons – real or imagined.

The Ventriloquist's Daughter

Lin, Man-Chiu

When the fervour of revolution is gone, what remains? Four leftist teenagers in 1950s Malaya dedicate themselves to overthrowing colonialism and bringing about a better world. With time, their paths diverge -- into capitalism, into adultery, into the dark heart of the Cultural Revolution. Disillusioned and middle-aged, they look back at their lives from the prosperous but soulless 1980s, wondering what has become of their dreams and ideals. Winner of the Singapore Literature Prize

Unrest

Yeng, Pway Ngon

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