Novel set in Singapore – How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee

A Singapore tale – How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee

Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked, leaving only two survivors and one tiny child.

An emotional and heartbreaking read set  during the Japanese occupation. It’s the story of a woman who survived the most horrific circumstances yet survived. Woven around this story is the tale of her husband and the horrors he also went through at the hands of the Japanese.

BookTrail Travel to the locations in How We Disappeared

BookTrail Travel to the locations in How We Disappeared

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Susan @thebooktrailer

A heartbreaking and powerful read. Did I mention this was heartbreaking? It shattered my heart and it’s stayed with me ever since. There were times I didn’t want to read any more but I did, as to stop would have felt like abandoning the characters to their fate alone. This book got to me in many ways, I’m not going to lie.

The books takes you back to the horrors inflicted on the women of Singapore during WW2. The Japanese invaded and they destroyed a country but they terrorised and violated many of the women. The descriptions of this were graphic and upsetting yet it’s experiences that did happen and Wang Di’s incarceration and brutal treatment is also that of so many others. Remember this and it’s all the more heart-wrenching. The women who were taken were called ‘comfort women’ and this name made the situation even worse somehow. Comfort? That word felt like nails on a blackboard. The notion of comfort which conjures up so many nice things sullied by the Japanese in this way. Those poor, poor women.

Then there’s the story of her husband. They have both suffered in different ways but find it hard to talk about it. He’s affectionately known as ‘Old One’, and Wang Di needs to know what he experienced during the war. She’s never admitted to him what happened to her – the shame is too great. And that’s what got me. despite everything this poor woman has endured, she’s the one to feel shame.

These two stories are recorded and written down by Kevin, who wants to discover the long lost story of his late grandmother. It’s this and the intertwining of the two histories that builds the picture of the novel as a whole.

Important to learn about, important to read, but powerfully raw and emotionally heartbreaking.

BookTrail Travel to the locations in How We Disappeared

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Twitter: @jingwrites  Web: www.jingjinglee.com/