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apollosmichioreads's review
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Heartland by Daren Shiau has one of the most relatable protagonists I’ve ever read in my life — largely due to the age and life stage of the protagonist.
In it, we see Wing Seng as he leaves Junior College and gets conscripted into full-time National Service. On the threshold of adulthood, as he grows out of a boy and starts to become a man, Wing Send grapples with questions of identity and root(ed/less)ness in an ever-evolving land.
Set in the familiar heartlands of Singapore, this novel is like a love letter to Singapore in all its authenticity, depicting life here in the early 1990s. There is nostalgia. There is vernacular. There is an uncertainty of a nation not yet fully grounded in its history.
Meaningful and wistful, this is a story that leaves echoes of a past lost forever to history.
4/5
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