A DifferentSky Epub Ú Paperback
Singapore a trading post where different lives jostle and mix It is , and three young people are starting to question whether this inbetween island can ever truly be their home Mei Lan comes from a famous Chinese dynasty but yearns to free herself from its stifling traditions ten year old Howard seethes at the indignities heaped on his fellow Eurasians by the colonial British Raj, fresh off the boat from India, wants only to work hard and become a successful businessman As the years pass, and the Second World War sweeps through the east, with the Japanese occupying Singapore, the three are thrown together in unexpected ways, and tested to breaking pointRichly evocative, A Different Sky paints a scintillating panorama of thirty tumultuous years in Singapore s history through the passions and struggles of characters the reader will find it hard to forget
This took some time to get through thanks to the small print and density of the prose, but it was effort well spent The story often lacks momentum, but the payoff for a little patience is a wealth of fascinating detail about Singapore from 1927 through 1956 Chand explores the mix of et
This is the kind of historical fiction that educates, effortlessly Set in Singapore, spanning 1927 through 1946, this novel was a unique read for me in that it covered an era I love in a setting wholly unfamiliar to me Chand s characters aren t royalty or society elite but every day people cau
I love stories that tell of post colonial times I just generally love period pieces A different sky was great for me because Chand s illustration of 1940s Singapore in the tumultaneous times of Japanese Colonialization as a restless society rising out of the ashes in its new national spirit was truly
A beautifully written, haunting yet hopeful, romantic but tragic story of a Singapore that existed not so long ago but is so very different from the Singapore of today Modern day Singapore is a pristine, organized, law abiding society the people I met while I resided on the island did not question, did not ri
Comparable in epic events and engagement in the characters lives to, The Wild Swans This is a most illuminating historical novel of Singapore, I highly recommend it Meira Chand has created such a convincing cast of characters with their complex lineage and the incredible amount of social and historical change they li
I read this book because it gave a history of Singapore pre, during and post WW2 so I learnt that it was a fractious place of riots, resentment of Colonial rule and communist uprising It was interesting to me because my grandparents and great grandparents would have been there during this time, my grandmother was evacuated f
Good historical fiction about the beginnings of Singapore as a nation Much easier to read than The Art of Charlie Hock Chye as there wascharacter development behind the true historical events Maybe I just understandabout Singapore history now.
The races don t mix here, you see Chinese keep to themselves in Chinatown, as do the Malays in Geylang, the Indians in Serangoon Road, the Eurasians in their Eurasian pockets and we of course, being the ruling race, can t afford to hobnob with any of them Live apart, work apart, socialize apart That old adage, familiarity breeds contempt, i
i visited Singapore last year, and was eager to learnabout its unusual multicultural history i would give this book 3 1 2 stars it provides a good overview of fairly recent history mid 20th century and includes the contributions of the Chinese, Malay, Indian, and British to the current society Clearly the author had to include a lot of politics, to
Meira Chand takes the readers through a journey of Singapore, through the lives of three characters, Raj, Mei Lan and Howard The year is 1927 and the story moves from one riot filled scene to another, tracing the history of Singapore s turbulent past Chand s descriptions are stark and gory The streets and scenes of Singapore, described in the book bear no