Love and Vertigo

( For the first time in my life, I saw my mother in relat...)

For the first time in my life, I saw my mother in relation to her family, and I didn't recognise her any more . . . These Singaporean roots of hers, this side of her—and possibly of me too—were unacceptable. I was determined not to belong, not to fit in, because I was Australian, and Mum ought to be Australian too. The tug of her roots, the blurring of her role from wife and mother to sister and aunt, angered me. On the eve of her mother's wake, Grace Tay flies to Singapore to join her father and brother and her mother's family. Here she explores her family history, looking for the answers to her mother's death. This beautiful and moving novel steps between Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia, evoking the life, traditions, and tastes of a forceful Chinese family as well as the hardship, cruelty, and pain. Written in a fresh, contemporary voice tinged with biting humor, this is a story about resilience and a story about migration, but in many ways it is a story about parents' expectations for their children.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1865082783/?tag=2022091-20

Behind the Moon

(“Behind the Moon is a satisfying, original and thought-pr...)

“Behind the Moon is a satisfying, original and thought-provoking pleasure.”—Good Reading Magazine   “Neatly balances betrayal and real drama, with farce and macabre, biting humour. . . . Highly recommended.”—Australian Bookseller & Publisher   Outsiders and misfits in their Australian school, three friends form a mutual bond: Justin Cheong, an only child and the idol of his Singaporean-Chinese parents; Tien Ho—daughter of a Vietnamese mother who stayed behind and an African American soldier she has never met—who lives with indifferent relatives; and Nigel “Gibbo” Gibson, an oddity: an Australian boy who, to his father’s chagrin, dislikes sports.   When Tien Ho’s mother arrives, the adjustment for mother and daughter is extreme. Gibbo is strongly attracted to beautiful, dainty Linh, to whom he is a kid, her daughter’s pal. And Justin discovers that he likes Gibbo as something more than a friend.   The three draw apart as they grow up, only to be reunited once more on Saturday, September 6, 1997, for the dinner Mrs. Cheong hosts for them and their parents, to watch the funeral of Princess Diana on television. This Dead Diana Dinner turns out to be a more explosive event than any of them would have dreamed possible.  

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005Q6YTCI/?tag=2022091-20

Behind the Moon by Teo, Hsu-Ming (2005) Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YRC0HCS/?tag=2022091-20

Love and Vertigo by Teo, Hsu-Ming (2000) Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YTJIPK0/?tag=2022091-20