- Description
- Praise
- About the Author
- We meet Ah Boon in Singapore, 1941, when he is a gentle young boy, joining his father on his fishing boat for the first time. Before long, he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, and develops a new sense of obligation and possibility – something to offer the community and impress the spirited girl he has fallen in love with. By the time they are teenagers, Ah Boon and Siok Mei are caught in the tragic sweep of history: the Japanese army invades, the resistance rises and the future of their fishing village is in jeopardy. As the nation hurtles towards rebirth, the two friends must carve out their fate and decide who they will become – and what they are willing to give up. This is a powerful coming-of-age, of both a young boy and a country, as well as an aching love story, that confronts the wounds of progress, the sacrifices of love, and the difficulty of defining home when nature and nation collide.
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‘An extraordinary achievement – an epic love story set in a world at war within and without itself. Every page pulses with mud and magic. I loved it’
— Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace ‘A monumental epic. A story of an entire nation reckoning with its past combined with a heart-wrenching love story. This one shouldn’t be missed. I was spellbound’
— Nathan Harris, author of The Sweetness of Water ‘Told with great tenderness and moral clarity, and alive to the beauty and mystery of the natural world as well as the human heart . . . timeless, timely, and unforgettable’
— Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers ‘A gorgeous novel about love, fate, free-will, and how, in wartime, one person’s choices can have long-lasting consequences. The Great Reclamation is as sweeping as it is specific. Ah Boon’s story will stay with me for a long time’
— Lara Prescott, New York Times bestselling author of The Secrets We Kept ‘A beautifully written novel. I loved so much in this book: the richly imagined setting, the varied languages and motivations at play in this burgeoning country, the complicated love story between Lee Ah Boon and Siok Mei, and the heartbreaking way history can tear apart a family. I’m grateful to Rachel Heng for writing this gorgeous novel’
— Ann Napolitano, author of Dear Edward - Born and raised in Singapore, Rachel Heng is the author of the novel Suicide Club, which was translated into ten languages worldwide and won the Gladstone Library Writer-In-Residence Award 2020 and is being developed for TV by Hulu, eOne and Annapurna. She has appeared in The New Yorker, Glimmer Train, McSweeney’s and elsewhere. Her non-fiction has been listed among Best American Essays’ Notable Essays and has been published in The Rumpus and The Telegraph. She is currently an assistant professor of English at Wesleyan University.