Great reading that provides a sense of the city, from the Traveler online Ultimate Travel Library.
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King Rat, by James Clavell (1962)
Clavell’s novel examines life in Singapore’s Changi prison during Japanese occupation during World War II. Since Clavell was a young POW held at Changi, the novel resonates as a first-person account into the brutality of life in wartime Singapore.
Foreign Bodies, by Hwee Hwee Tan (1997)
Hwee Hwee Tan’s novel looks at Mei, a Singaporean lawyer who has to defend Andy, her British English-teacher boyfriend unjustly accused of being the ringleader in an international soccer gambling operation. Lightly examines the Singaporean justice system, as well as a modern cross-cultural romance.
The Battle for Singapore: The True Story of the Greatest Catastrophe of World War II, by Peter Thompson (2005)
Although strategists said it could never happen, “fortress” Singapore fell to the Japanese shortly after Pearl Harbor. Considered one of the great defeats of the war.
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, by Lee Kuan Yew (2000)
Often referred to as the “Father of Singapore,” Lee Kuan Yew examines his three-decade struggle to transform Singapore from one of the poorest nations on earth, to one of the wealthiest.
Kinda Hot: The Making of Saint Jack in Singapore, by Ben Slater (2006)
In 1978, Peter Bogdanovich made a movie in Singapore about prostitutes, starring Ben Gazzara. Here is the story of how it was made, the ensuing controversy when it was released, and the eventual ban by the Singapore government.
Singapore: A Pictorial History, by Gretchen Liu (2001)
A carefully researched book of 1,200 drawings and photographs that detail Singapore’s transformation from a colonial shipping port run by the East India Company to a wealthy, independent business center.
