Rice Bowl

by Lim, Suchen Christine

• ISBN13: 9789815084436
• ISBN10: 9815084437
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-11-07
• Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Editions

Summary

The first novel from Singapore Literature Prize Winner Suchen Christine Lim.A powerful story of young love and idealism set in Singapore in the 1960s, a time of political uncertainties and economic insecurity.

Young, passionate and idealistic, Sister Marie rejects the conformity of her first love, a Singaporean police inspector, and embraces the liberalism of her second love, an American missionary. Fresh into university, she leads a group of students to question the values of a nation gripped by fear of the government and loss of their rice bowl.

They organize a protest march against the Vietnam War, which leads to a riot, detention and deportation of the workers they try to help. In the midst of this, a student meets a tragic death, while a lecturer and a suspected Communist agent provocateur goes crazy in his attempts to radicalize the students-workers’ movement.

Author Biography

Suchen Christine Lim was born in the Malaysian state of Perak and came to Singapore at the age of 14. After graduation, she taught in a junior college and worked as a curriculum specialist in the Ministry of Education. In 2003, she resigned to write full time.

Suchen was awarded the inaugural Singapore Literature Prize for Fistful of Colours in 1992. Among other acclaimed works are her debut novel Rice Bowl (1984), A Bit of Earth (2001) and The River’s Song (2014), which was one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books Of 2015. In 2012, she was awarded the Southeast Asia Write Award for her body of work.

Awarded a Fulbright grant, Suchen was a Fellow in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program and later became its Writer in Residence. She was also a Fellow in Creative Writing at the Nanyang Technological University.