Moth Stories

Shortlisted for the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize (Fiction)

A young girl's ambitions prompt dark stirrings in her nature. A father reckons with a lifetime of dysfunctional family relations. A foreign worker is cut adrift on a raft of shattered dreams. In the title story "Moth", a condemned woman reclaims her broken dignity.

In a collection that resonates with life's poignance, humour and irony, Leonora Liow explores the private universe of individuals navigating the arcane waters of human existence and masterfully illuminates the extraordinary humanity that endures.

Reader Reviews:

"... a collection of ten powerfully observed stories of everyday life in Singapore... a voice very distinct from, yet reminiscent of, the works of Suchen Christine Lim and the early fiction of Catherine Lim, both acute observers of Singapore."
- Akshita Nanda, Arts Correspondent, The Straits Times

"... Delving deeper into Liow's stories, a sense of the investigative emerges where the psychological state of characters is traced. The reader discovers the historical forces shaping the characters' development. From the demands on women as wife, mother and daughter to the hopes of a migrant worker who is submerged from the weight of work, Moth Stories also reveals and unravels the surface of society."
- Janelle Chua, THE RIDGE team, a committee of the National University of Singapore Students' Union.

"Leonora Liow's Moth Stories is a collection of fiction works that tell the tale of everyday life in Singapore. Its emotional stories of struggling marriages, dark side of human migration, among others are the core strengths of the book... Achingly mesmerising, the author has a writing style that bears a slight resemblance to Alice Munro's. Austere, evocative and soulful were some of the words that kept popping up in my mind when I was reading the book."
- Priscillia, Pressed Up in a Book

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