Tinder Press seizes ‘powerful’ new coming-of-age novel from Heng 

Tinder Press has signed The Great Reclamation by Rachel Heng, “a powerful coming-of-age story of both a young boy and a country, as well as an aching love story, that confronts the wounds of progress, the sacrifices of love, and the difficulty of defining home when nature and nation collide”.

Ellie Freedman, assistant editor, acquired the novel from Caspian Dennis at Abner Stein, on behalf of Julie Barer at The Book Group, to be published on 29th March 2023. US rights have been acquired by Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, who will publish simultaneously.

The Great Reclamation tells the story of Ah Boon, who is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of 20th-century coastal Singapore, in the waning years of British rule.

He is a gentle boy, who is not much interested in fishing, preferring to spend his days playing with the neighbour girl, Siok Mei, the synopsis continues. But when he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, he feels a new sense of obligation and possibility – something to offer the community and impress the spirited girl he has fallen in love with.

By the time they are teenagers, Ah Boon and Siok Mei are caught in the tragic sweep of history: the Japanese army invades, the resistance rises and the future of their fishing village is in jeopardy. As the nation hurtles towards rebirth, the two friends must carve out their fate and decide who they will become – and what they are willing to give up.

Heng, whose novel Suicide Club (Sceptre) was translated into 10 languages and won the Gladstone Library Writer-In-Residence Award 2020, said: “I grew up hearing stories from older family members of a very different Singapore than what exists today, one of wooden shophouses, rubber plantations and coasts teeming with marine life.

“In writing The Great Reclamation, I wanted to give life to the transformation of the country that took place in my parents’ and grandparents’ lifetimes, what it must have been like to live through such great change. I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with Ellie Freedman and Tinder Press to bring The Great Reclamation to the UK.”

Freedman said: “The Great Reclamation contains some of the most exquisite sentences I have come across. At its heart is an emotionally charged story of a family and a young boy who comes of age at a time of conflict. But beyond this, it is a book about change, asking what we are willing to sacrifice in the name of progress. It’s a story that has grabbed me and refused to let me go.”