Inheritance
by Balli Kaur Jaswal
Interest age: 14 to 18
Reading age: 10+
Published by Epigram Books, 2017
About this book
As a newly-independent Singapore struggles to establish its own identity and economic stability, a single father in the Punjabi Sikh community tries his hardest to keep his family intact.
His teenage daughter goes missing one night and returns a seemingly different person. Her brother is sent to America in the hope that he will learn how to be a real man. Meanwhile, her eldest sibling attempts to live up to the expectations of his father and their community.
Spanning several decades, this astonishing novel presents the emergence of a fledgling nation and its shifting attitudes towards gender, sexuality, mental health and religious imperatives, as they affect the members of one family. These changes take their toll on the family - but also push them to find out who they really are and deserve to be.
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