Review of "Lying Eyes" by Ashish K Kulshreshth

Ashish, from my writing group, wrote this adult historical fiction novel, which was launched during the recent Singapore Writers Festival in Nov 2022. 

This book deals with horrors of the war period and is not for the faint hearted. What would you do if you've been forced into prostitution by an occupying army? And then found yourself rejected by the community after the war? What if you are forced to point fingers at anti-Japanese conspirators so that they can be executed? How do you live with yourself after the war? These realities are enshrined in two characters, a man, and woman and a third man who was a victim of the Changi Beach Massacre but lived to marry this woman.

Since this is a recently published book, I don't want to reveal spoilers. I do want to say that the protagonist, living with guilt for most of his life, managed to attain a kind of redemption, by extending help to another, and also receiving kindness from others. The narrative is non-linear and clever, revealing the background of the character as the story unfolds.

The writer has lived many years in Singapore and familiar with local culture, though he is not strictly speaking, a Singapore native, and is able to create a narrative from an outsider's point of view. This book is about the atrocities of war, and is able to illustrate the many dimensions of human suffering and behaviour without being too on-the-nose.

Growing up in Singapore, I think not many people here are familiar with some aspects of the wartime history. This book should definitely join the ranks of other SingLit novels to be made compulsory reading for school English Literature classes.