Foreign Bodies - Hardcover

Tan, Hwee Hwee

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0718142551 ISBN 13: 9780718142551

Publisher: Michael Joseph, 1997

Synopsis

Mei, a young Singaporean lawyer, receives a telephone call at one in the morning. It's Andy, her English boyfriend. He's in jail, accused of masterminding an international soccer gambling syndicate. But Andy is a clueless relief teacher so how did he become involved in this mess? As Mei attempts to clear Andy's name, we learn of secrets buried in the past, of the clash between East and West, and of the dissolute world of expats.

About this title

Review:

"Kirkus Reviews"

Witty, hip, engrossing -- and utterly astonishing both in breadth of feeling and depth of intelligence: one of the strongest and most original works of the year.

"The Wall Street Journal"

A milestone.

"The New York Times Book Review"

A gripping story...

"The Economist"

A novel of distinction almost indecently accomplished for a twenty-three-year-old.

Larry Beinhart

author of "American Hero" (filmed as "Wag the Dog)"

Hwee Hwee Tan is a child-genius and Nobel laureate embryo.

"The New York Times Book Review"

Tan's prose resembles that of British writers like Helen Fielding and Nick Hornby....A promising, original debut.

"Los Angeles Times Book Review"

Tan digs through the irony to get at her characters' buried secrets -- their "foreign bodies" -- making us care about these precocious, clueless border-crossers.

"Publishers Weekly"

Tan's lucid and wide-ranging first novel is a memorable portrait of disenchanted and feckless youth, a narrative that gains indelible resonance as the plot unfolds....This seductive novel moves with furious grace to a transcendent conclusion.

Chuck Wachtel

author of"Joe the Engineer" and "The Gates"

The world the narrators of this extraordinary novel inhabit -- ours, now -- tries to deny them the knowledge of how much it injures them just to live in it. In voices that are lightning fast and sharply observant, that are as uncertain as they are wise, that dare to be funny even when they should not be, they struggle to take back the meaning of their lives. This -- in our particular moment in human history -- makes them heroes, and makes their story a great pleasure to read.

"The New York Times Book Review"A gripping story...

From the Back Cover:

Trouble often comes with a late-night phone call. So it comes to Mei, a twenty-something Singaporean lawyer about to face the greatest trial of her life. Her English boyfriend Andy, working in Singapore as a teacher, has been arrested, accused of masterminding an international betting ring. Under Singapore's draconian system of justice, he has but nine short days to prove his innocence or face life in prison. With time running out, Singapore native Eugene, Andy's best friend and Mei's childhood playmate, flies in from Holland to help uncover the truth, a search that will unearth long-hidden secrets and forever challenge the moral, ethical, and spiritual framework of their lives.

Exploring the chasm between Singapore's pop culture and traditional values, the friends' Gen-X cynicism and their gnawing hunger for direction and meaning, Hwee Hwee Tan delivers a powerful novel of clashing cultures and swirling spiritual quests, in which the wit is as sharp and unafraid as the insight it offers.

About this edition

• Publisher: Michael Joseph
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0718142551
• ISBN 13: 9780718142551
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288