Miss Seetoh in the World

Miss Maria Seetoh, a teacher of English and Literature in St Peter’s Secondary School in Singapore, sees herself as a ‘simple soul who only wants to be a good and happy person’, and has a dream to write stories about ‘simple, ordinary people going about their daily lives’. However, God/ Providence/Fate/Chance, etc. decrees otherwise. She is thrown into the tumult of a disastrous marriage that begins as strangely as it ends, a failed love affair that ‘hollows her out’, and a controversial teaching career that ends with her abrupt resignation. Most of all, she is caught in a political event as shocking in its causes as in its consequences. Set against the backdrop of modern-day Singapore, a hugely successful city-state grappling with changes and challenges that could corrode the very soul, the novel ultimately examines, with wit, wry irony and warm understanding, the unchanging quandaries of the human condition, when love and sex, religion and politics, tradition and modernity, can all come together in an unruly mix, to show human nature at its most depressing and its most inspiring.


Frequently referred to as the doyenne of Singapore’s literary circles, Catherine Lim is internationally recognised as one of the leading figures in the world of Asian fiction. The prolific Lim has penned more than 19 books across various genres — short stories, novels, reflective prose, poems and satirical pieces.

 

Lim has won several national and regional book prizes for her literary contributions and was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate of Literature by Murdoch University, Australia and a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture and Information. Many of Lim’s works are studied in local and foreign schools and universities and have been published in various languages in several countries. One of her novels, A Leap of Love has also been made into a movie. Besides writing, Lim guest lectures at local and international seminars, conferences, arts/writing festivals and cruise ships worldwide. She has also appeared on radio and television programmes in Singapore, Europe and Australia.