GenevaBookClub: Published in 1973; set in 1960s Singapore. Paul Theroux (born 1941) did a 3-year stint in Singapore where he taught at the English Department of the National University of Singapore Saint Jack was banned in Singapore for 30 years as it cast the country in an unfavourable light. His novel Jungle Lovers (1971) was similarly banned in Malawi for being critical of the government Brimming with sex, sleaze, and violence, Theroux’s gritty-yet-loving portrait of Singapore tells of an alienated American expat who works as a pimp, and how he struggles to make it big without losing his strange but strict code of morals.

GenevaBookClub: Published in 1972; set in 1960s Singapore. Singaporean writer Goh Poh Seng (1936-2010) was a medical doctor who was a well-known arts supporter – he also opened Singapore’s first Disco Lounge! Widely regarded as the first “true” Singapore novel If We Dream Too Long explores the dilemmas and challenges faced by its hero, Kwang Meng, as he navigates the difficult transitional period between youthful aspirations and the external demands of society and family Kwang Meng’s experiences question the concept of self amidst the dreariness and aimlessness of an increasingly urbanized and materialistic Asian society The book also provides a portrait of Singapore as it was in the 1960s, and a landscape and society that have undergone many changes.