The Sun Sets in Singapore
A Today Show Read With Jenna Book Club Pick
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A Today Show #ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick
Basking in Singapore’s nonstop sunshine, Dara, Amaka, and Lillian are living the glamorous expat dream—until a mysterious (not to mention handsome) new arrival infiltrates their tight-knit community and ruins everything: "Wanderlust-inducing" (Lola Akinmade Åkerström, international bestselling author).
The Lion City has gone by many names and is famous for many things—its decadent street food, its world-class shopping, its lush gardens that burst with tropical blooms. But paradise is always hiding a snake.
For Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK, Singapore is opportunity. Every day, brokering deals for her firm’s wealthy clientele, she gets closer to her ultimate goal: making partner. For Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria, Singapore is extravagance. Gucci, Prada, Hermès—she loves nothing more than to luxuriate in the major department stores that call her name on Orchard Road. And for Lillian, a former pianist turned “trailing spouse” from the U.S., Singapore is reinvention. In a stunning apartment with 360° views, the island seems to glitter as far as the eye can see.
But complications are looming in the form of an enigmatic stranger, whose presence exposes cracks in Singapore’s beguiling façade. Dara’s ambitions mean she has no life outside the firm, and her insecurities are threatening to derail the promotion she’s spent the last six years striving for. Amaka is desperate to escape the chaos she left behind at home and hiding a spiraling shopping addiction that’s endangering her very sense of self. And while Lillian’s life may be the envy of outsiders, a new obsession is imperiling everything—and everyone—around her.
In The Sun Sets in Singapore, Kehinde Fadipe captures the richness of this metropolis through the eyes of three tenacious women, who are about to learn that unfinished history can follow you anywhere, no matter how far you run from home.
Includes a Reading Group Guide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Fadipe's striking debut, three Nigerian women living in Singapore contend with the arrival of Lani, a handsome and charming British Nigerian lawyer who threatens to unravel their seemingly perfect lives. Attorney Dara sees her dreams of making partner evaporate when Lani is brought in by the firm to lead one of her major cases. To make matters worse, her friendship with Amaka, a banker secretly struggling with a shopping addiction and mounting debt, is threatened by Amaka's physical attraction to Lani. Also in the mix is Nigerian American Lillian, a former professional pianist, who's painfully reminded of her parents' deaths after meeting Lani, who bears a strong resemblance to her father. Fadipe casts a studied eye on Singapore's small but thriving African expatriate community while weaving a cautionary fable about how all that glitters may not be gold. Although Lani for the most part remains a cipher, the female protagonists embody complexity and hidden depths of character. Fadipe's shrewd observations on identity, classism, and racism give the novel an emotional edge ("Nobody really fits in—that's why people try to oppress everyone else"). Fans of recent Singapore-based fiction like Kyla Zhao's The Fraud Squad will savor the local settings and depictions of high society.