• Author: Vanessa Chan
• Series: Standalone
• Genre: Historical Fiction
• No. of pages: 337
• Dates read: 31.01.24 – 03.02.24
• Publication Date: Out Now!
• Star Rating: 4 stars

Plot: Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s family is in terrible danger: her 15-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day. Cecily knows two things: that this is all her fault; and that her family must never learn the truth. A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. Ten years later as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction—and she will do anything to save them.

A harrowing but poignant tale of real life experiences and the horror of war!

Words cannot express how important this novel is. Detailing real experiences by Malaysians under the occupation of both Britain and Japan this story was heartbreaking but necessary to bring further awareness to the horrendous treatment by occupying forces against Malaysians. This book was beautifully written with so much heart and soul put into it. You can’t help but connect instantly to the characters – you cry when they cry and laugh when they laugh. Chan did an amazing job of firmly placing you in the setting alongside the various characters and you can easily picture the different parts of the country we are witness to – both the beauty and the horror.

This book will stay with me a long time.