The Great Reclamation is a work of historical fiction set in Singapore that has received rave reviews from the New Yorker and the New York Times. A love story, it also took five years of serious research into a variety of topics, including land reclamation, the Japanese Occupation and postwar politics in Singapore. Listen to author Rachel Heng talk about her book and her fascinating research process.

Rachel Heng is the author of the novels The Great Reclamation and Suicide Club, which was a national bestseller in Singapore and has been translated into 10 languages.

Transcript and Resources

Read the transcript and the BiblioAsia article on land reclamation that Rachel referred to in her research at biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/podcast/about.

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Soh Gek Han and produced by Jimmy Yap. Sound engineering was done by Gibson Analytics. The background music “Di Tanjong Katong” was composed by Osman Ahmad and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Rachel for coming on the show.

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library of Singapore.