The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng

 

With the ocean as their backyard, Ah Boon and his classmate Siok Mei grow up in land that becomes Singapore. Siok Mei gets swept up in anti-government activities but Ah Boon, having seen his own father lost to government atrocities, treads a narrow path. He joins the Gah Men, the repressive government authorities who doggedly destroy the seaside villages to create a new Singapore as part of the Great Reclamation. The two lovers’ paths are not linear and their motivations are not unselfish either. Heng shows a remarkable knack for juggling nuance and human complexity in a spectacular must-read debut.