Q & A FOR UNTIL EVEN THE ANGELS

What inspired you to write Until Even the Angels?

All my writing, whether memoir or fiction, comes from a visceral feeling I have experienced in the real world. For Until Even the Angels, three key life moments affected me deeply which I braided together into this debut novel. 

I grew up for part of my childhood in the 1980’s of Jakarta, Indonesia. During this time, I visited Singapore frequently. This experience of coming of age in a complex, vibrant culture that was so different to the culture of my parents laid the foundations of being naturally curious about the world and fed my already wild imagination. Having the good fortune to live and learn internationally builds one’s ability to have empathy and curiosity which are important to have as a writer. 

Decades later in North America, as a young mother of school-aged children, a fellow parent I had met turned out to be involved in criminal activity and was murdered. The event was a major shock to my community. I couldn’t shake the feeling of being so close to danger and death. I’m not sure I will ever get over it.

Shortly after this horrific event, our family moved to Singapore where I walked every morning around Goldhill. It was on these walks around Mount Rosie Road that I was drawn to the impressive black and white colonial estates and imagined the lives of the people who would have lived and worked there. I wove these three occurrences into a story about lost friendship, sacrifice, betrayal, and vengeance. I hope readers enjoy reading about the complex friendship of Mei Mei, Honour and Pash.

Until Even the Angels falls into the literary crime fiction tradition and is set in both post-colonial Singapore and present-day London. Why were you drawn to the 1950’s?

Singapore in the 1950’s, its racial complexities bearing the weight of colonial strangulation, the ever-encroaching jungle, is perfect soil to start to grow a story. When I learned of the Maria Hertogh riots, my heart was ripped apart for all the communities of people in Singapore who were killed, injured and damaged. This period of time felt very alive to me. 

This novel is organized into four books: Invade, Disguise, Rage and Murder. Why did you divide the book using these references?

Brood parasites, birds which use other birds to raise their young, invade the nests of other birds, disguise their eggs and then murder the other chicks so their chicks survive. I used these section headings to be analogous to the complex parenting of Mei Mei, Honour, Rosie, and Maria. 

Your book, Until Even the Angels, comes at a time when literature about Singapore and the region is popular. Why did you write this book now?

You are absolutely right. I think of Rachel Heng’s The Great Reclamation, Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Made – set in Malaya during WW II, I think of Jing Jing Lee’s How We Disappeared, TA Morton’s Someone is Coming and it is clear that the war years and in my book’s case, the post war years, was a time of great disruption where stakes were high and pressure points were felt at all levels of society, all ripe elements in which to set a novel. I wanted to transport my readers to places unknown and use an attempted murder investigation to drive the story structure. The book comes out at the perfect time as revenge travel is real and people are coming to Singapore as a base for extended travel in the region.

In a world of detective stories where the investigator is often a man, Detective Ayesha Nur comes across as a relatable person. How did the character of Ayesha Nur come to you?

I saw a female police officer while I was driving one day. It was just a brief moment as I passed her, but in that moment her voice and character came to me and I knew she would be the perfect counterpoint to Mei Mei’s voice.

Tell us about some of your favourite writers?

I read widely. I really enjoyed Emily Habaek’s Shark Heart for its devastating love story. I really enjoyed The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, and Emma Donoghue’s The Pull of The Stars, Rumaan Alam’s Leave The World Behind, and Tim Winton’s The Shepherd’s Hut. I just finished You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith and loved it. Jing Jing Lee’s book How They Disappeared was incredible. Rachel Heng’s The Great Reclamation was great, and Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko was absolutely stunning.

What moves you to write a piece?

I have to feel an emotion so deeply that I cannot forget it, whether it is wonder, gratitude, fear, yearning, or desire. I start with the feeling and then stay very quiet and listen for a voice. Mei Mei’s voice came to me clear as a bell. She was unrelenting, demanding me to writer her story.

Where do you think literature in Singapore is heading?

Great question. As an alumna of the Asia Creative Writing Program, I would say the SingLit scene has a great future. People like Jon Gresham and the whole ACWP team and the amazing teachers they have as well as the Singapore Writers Festival, Epigram Book prizes and the amazing books coming out set in Singapore, I think the future is very bright. I recently read Kehinde Fedipe’s great book The Sun Sets in Singapore and it was so entertaining and eye-opening to learn about the Nigerian diaspora here. So SingLit is as diverse as the amazing people who call this island home.

Do you have a favourite quote about writing?

I believe art inspires art. For example, I am amazed how an artist can capture an image of my writing and am delighted by this shared artistic endeavour. 

One of my favourite quotations about Art is from the writer Jean Rhys. She wrote: 

All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake like Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. And there are trickles like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake. I don’t matter. The lake matters. You must keep feeding the lake.”