The Light Between Us

"a love story, a meditation on photography, an elegant historical fiction, and a gripping tale that enchanted me to the very last page."—MELISSA FU, author of Peach Blossom Spring

"Interrogating the honesty and possibility of photographs, Chiew masterfully entangles a love transcending time and space with speculative finesse. Like the letters within the novel, these pages manifest the past and present—not just mere words, not mere image but a sensory cornucopia that one can step inside to interrogate heart and truth, colonial past as well as the ghosts of colonialism that remain in the same streets and buildings, which now carry different names. A genre-defying, labyrinthine, and luscious novel that pulls no philosophical punches as it dares to thrill."—Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go in the Dark

"The Light Between Us is an intricate, richly layered and meticulously researched historical detective story set in pre-WWII Singapore. It’s a stunningly ambitious novel, blending fictional characters and events with historical figures and factual landmarks. Simultaneously lush and ghostly, Chiew’s writing is visually attentive and alert to power structures governing not only the colonial era but our modern age. The cultural and sexual oppression of women is one of the novel’s concerns and enquiries. Chiew's skill and enthusiasm as both a food writer and a visual researcher/cultural critic are evident – in The Light Between Us an entertainingly entangled plot and sympathetic characters allow readers lively and populated access to her insights."—Hannah Vincent, award-winning playwright and author of The Weaning

"This is an engrossing tale of bittersweet love and longing simultaneously straddling two eras in Singapore: a young archivist and her adoptive brother in the present-day city and a photographer in colonial times. The separate worlds of Cantonese photographers and Japanese soldiers orbit over the Internet when the photographer mysteriously appears on the archivist's computer screen, luring her into a celestial realm in her basement office. Told through archived photographs, Chiew immerses the reader in old Singapore and the harrowing years of the Japanese Occupation while moving seamlessly into the lives of a wealthy family led by a devious matriarch. Meticulously researched and richly crafted, The Light Between Us dances elegantly between truths and lies, promises and threats, and between a sweet dream and harsh reality."—Mahita Vas, author of Rain Tree