cover image SHADOW THEATRE

SHADOW THEATRE

Fiona Cheong, . . Soho, $24 (304pp) ISBN 978-1-56947-287-3

The voices of women in contemporary Singapore and the spirits who permeate their world shimmer in this elegant if muted second novel by Cheong (The Scent of the Gods). Mystery and omens swirl around Shakilah Nair, a writer and university professor who has returned to her home in Singapore pregnant and unmarried after 15 years in the United States. Shakilah is the object of speculation by her girlhood friend Rose Sim and other neighborhood women and girls of assorted Chinese, Indian, Malay and mixed ancestries—including Shakilah's own troubled mother, Valerie, who has secrets of her own. As Shakilah prepares for the birth of her baby, the women experience visitations and sightings of ghosts and spirits. Employing alternating narratives—a device paralleled by the book Shakilah herself is writing, which has been rejected by her publisher as having "too many voices"—Cheong allows hints of violent undercurrents and tragic events from the past that foreshadow the future. While this subdued unfolding lends itself well to the overall theme, it can be frustratingly coy and slow going; some facts remain puzzlingly opaque and new narrators are introduced to discuss the principals, rendering their stories more distant than might be desired. But Cheong's delicate layering and poetic language rescue the narrative, and there's no avoiding the emotional punch delivered by this lushly exotic story of mothers, daughters, friendship and tragedy. Agent, Alice Martell. (June)