Books with author Catherine Lukas

This collection of eight short stories combines Catherine Lim's sharp powers of observation with her insightful comments on the conflicts, both internal and external, brought about by love in the lives of men and women in modern-day Singapore. The result is a vibrant assortment of stories and voices brimming with courage, deep introspection and heartfelt emotion. Powerful and riveting, this collection is sure to captivate your mind and tug at your heartstrings and with its relentless prose and evocative charm.

The living and the dead - there is something that binds them. For the living are endlessly fascinated by tales of the dead, whether they are about an ancestor whose ghost reputedly haunts an old ancestral house, or an airline pilot whose ghost is forever condemned to roam the earth with that of his mistress for an unspeakably cruel suicide pact that plunges a hundred others to their deaths. The dead too appear to be fascinated by the living. They want to come back to reassure, console, seek revenge, seek forgiveness or simply to connect across an immense gulf of darkness and mystery. Death may bring silence but it is a howling silence with the urgent needs, hopes, desires and torments on both sides.

The 12 stories in this collection electrify by their dazzling diversity of subject, their relentless observation and comments and their adroit use of language. Through the dark labyrinths of the secret lives of men and women in Singapore, Catherine Lim once again uses her sharp powers of observation to comment masterfully on our complex relationships against the immense and brilliant backdrop of our society's achievements. Laying bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart, these stories celebrate the surprising power of love and its effects on every one of us.

Excerpt from The Oak Staircase: Or, the Stories of Lord and Lady Desmond; A Narrative of the Times of James IITory of the Maids of Taunton which is a well known episode in the record of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion - and the romantic story of the marriage between Lord Sunderland's daughter and the Earl of Clancarty. But although these incidents have in reality no connection with each other whatever, we have ventured to combine the two, and found upon them the adventures of the young Lord Desmond and Frances Dalrymple.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from The Oak Staircase: Or, the Stories of Lord and Lady Desmond; A Narrative of the Times of James IITory of the Maids of Taunton which is a well known episode in the record of the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion - and the romantic story of the marriage between Lord Sunderland's daughter and the Earl of Clancarty. But although these incidents have in reality no connection with each other whatever, we have ventured to combine the two, and found upon them the adventures of the young Lord Desmond and Frances Dalrymple.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.