Leap of Fate

A quirky tale of feuds, courage and redemption, set in a rural village in 1950s Singapore.

Growing up in the 1950s in a village known as Lorong Limau, a group of young Singaporeans found themselves having to navigate livelihoods and relationships in unexpected tragicomic ways. Siblings would turn out to be lifelong enemies, money—or rather the lack of it—a crippling nightmare, love an ever posture of deception, wild gossip the coup de grâce.

In spite of it all, the unforeseen—even death itself—would every so often become a flint for courage and redemption for some of the protagonists, especially Tin, a brave teenage girl who continued to defy familial odds, and Mona, a widow-turned-prostitute who was forced to thwart her own expectations.

Equal parts inspired by real-life anecdotes and borne of imagination, this story promises to lay bare the struggles and aspirations of those living in that era, a place and time unwittingly defined by societal taboos and quirky traditions long vanished from the face of contemporary Singapore. Ultimately, it's a story of what it means to be human when fate decides to take a leap.

Leap of Fate by Jansen Lim offers readers a poignant glimpse into a bygone era.