The Great Reclamation

On a quiet moonlit night, Ah Boon, young and terrified, takes his first trip out to sea in his father's fishing boat - a rite of passage for the boys of the kampong. As the air hums and the wind howls across the waves, a mysterious, impossible island materialises in the darkness; an island, bountiful with fish, that Ah Boon soon learns only he has the ability to find.

But this is only the beginning of the story, and as Ah Boon grows up, alongside Siok Mei, the spirited girl he has fallen in love with, he finds himself caught in the tragic sweep of Singapore's history. When the Japanese army invades, the resistance rises, and their small nation hurtles towards rebirth, the kampong and the impossible islands that surround it are thrown into jeopardy, and the two friends must decide who they will become - and what they are willing to give up.

'Extraordinary . . . Every page pulses with mud and magic' Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace

'Alive to the beauty and mystery of the natural world as well as the human heart' Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers

'What a marvellous novel' Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning

'An intimate love story and an epic historical tale that is sure to be read for years to come' Julie Otsuka, author of The Buddha in the Attic

'Ah Boon's story will stay with me for a long time' Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept

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 T he 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.

'An extraordinary achievement . . . Every page pulses with mud and magic' Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace 'A monumental epic . . . I was spellbound' Nathan Harris, author of The Sweetness of Water 'Alive to the beauty and mystery of the natural world as well as the human heart' Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers 'Ah Boon's story will stay with me for a long time' Lara Prescott, author of The Secrets We Kept Ah Boon is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of twentieth-century coastal Singapore, in the waning years of British rule. He is a gentle boy, who is not much interested in fishing, preferring to spend his days playing with the neighbour girl, Siok Mei. But when he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, he feels 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 Book 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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