Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
Right of the Soil - cover

Right of the Soil

Yong Shu Hoong

Publisher: Ethos Books

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

Summary

The Latin phrase, jus soli (“right of the soil”), is an unconditional right of a person born within the territory of a country to be conferred citizenship. Singapore’s nationality law is based on jus sanguinis (“right of blood”, in which citizenship is determined by that of one or both parents) and a modified form of jus soli (with at least one Singaporean parent). 
 
A two-time Singapore Literature Prize winner, Yong Shu Hoong contemplates how a person is invariably bound to the land on which he first sets foot. These poems address topics like belongingness and birthright by exploring the intermingling of the four fundamental elements of air, water, fire and earth. 
 
Expanded from a 2016 chapbook published a year after the 50th anniversary of Singapore’s independence, this book also attempts to sharpen Yong’s understanding of his relationship with his homeland. A new sequence of poems then plunges readers into Hell, reimagined as Singapore’s third integrated resort that opens underground in the centennial year of 2065, with its concepts inspired by Haw Par Villa’s main attraction, the 10 Courts of Hell. 
 
Beyond our earthly lives, is it soil – or another element or dimension – that will assert its right to claim us? 
 
Shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize for Poetry 2020
Available since: 08/03/2023.
Print length: 96 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (NHB Modern Plays) - cover

    it felt empty when the heart...

    Lucy Kirkwood

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    A luminous journey exploring the life of Dijana Polancec: professional romantic, eternal optimist and accidental prostitute. Winner of the John Whiting Award, 2010
    Produced by acclaimed theatre company Clean Break. it felt empty premiered at the Arcola Theatre, London in October 2009.
    'unflinching... theatre that provokes in the best way, without lurid melodrama or sentimentality, but with wit and tenderness... demands that we watch and listen' The Times
    'superb... deeply painful and profoundly disturbing' The Stage
    Show book
  • A River of Crows - cover

    A River of Crows

    Shanessa Gluhm

    • 3
    • 23
    • 1
    In 1988, Sloan Hadfield’s brother Ridge went fishing with their father and never came home. Their father, a good-natured Vietnam veteran prone to violent outbursts, was arrested and charged with murder. Ridge’s body was never recovered, and Sloan’s mother—a brilliant ornithologist—slowly descended into madness, insisting her son was still alive.
     
    Now, twenty years later, Sloan’s life is unraveling. In the middle of a bitter divorce, she’s forced to return to her rural Texas hometown when her mother is discharged from a mental health facility.
     
    Overwhelmed by memories and unanswered questions, Sloan returns to the last place her brother was seen all those years ago: Crow’s Nest Creek. There, she is shocked to hear a crow muttering the same syllable over and over: Ridge, Ridge, Ridge.
     
    When the body of another boy is found, Sloan begins to question what really happened to her brother all those years ago. What she discovers will shock her small community and turn her family upside down.
     
    A River of Crows is a tale of family secrets, deception, and revenge perfect for fans of Julia Heaberlin and Jennifer Hillier.
     
    Praise for A River of Crows
     
    “In A River of Crows, Shanessa Gluhm spins a complex web of murder and family revelation that propels the reader forward at a breakneck pace. Just when you think you know where the story is headed, she reveals another thread. If you haven’t yet read Shanessa Gluhm, you need to put her on your to-be-read list.”—Allen Eskens, USA Today bestselling author of The Life We Bury
     
    “A twisted family dynamic and complex personal history combine with a touch of romance . . . grabs on with the opening pages and holds a reader tight to the very end.”—Elena Taylor/Elena Hartwell, author of All We Buried and the Wait, Wait, Don’t Query (Yet) series
     
    “. . . one of the strongest new voices in mysteries. [Gluhm] has invented what could be a new genre: the family-driven mystery.”—Rob Samborn, author of The Prisoner of Paradise and Painter of the Damned
     
    “. . . peels away layers of family secrets in this dual timeline narrative, right up until the climatic final reveal, a twist that truly surprised me.”—Laura Kemp, award-winning author of the Lantern Creek Series
     
    “. . . a thought-provoking story of revelation, family ties, discovery, and murder. Readers who choose A River of Crows for its mystery will find an unexpected draw and value in the emotional components which keep the plot action-packed and charged with transformation.”—D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
     
    "Shanessa Gluhm, with literary panache, expertly shows what happens when a family strays from respect and honesty, with the consequence of it all, as dark as a crow’s wing, unfurling, touching, and changing everything and everyone in its path."—Lone Star Literary Life
     
    “Like the tumultuous river flowing at the center of this gripping tale, Shanessa Gluhm has crafted a pulsating story that is just waiting to pull you into its chilling depths and slowly reveal all its darkest secrets”—Indies Today
    Show book
  • Pennyroyal (NHB Modern Plays) - cover

    Pennyroyal (NHB Modern Plays)

    Lucy Roslyn

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    When Daphne is diagnosed with Premature Ovarian Insufficiency at the age of nineteen, her sister Christine steps in to help in the only way she knows how: by donating her eggs. For a while, the world seems corrected. But as the years go by – and Daphne sets out on the long road of IVF – the sisters' relationship begins to twist.
    Pennyroyal is a heartrending new play by Lucy Roslyn about sisterhood and motherhood, enduring love, and regrets many years in the making. Inspired by Edith Wharton's 1922 novella The Old Maid, it was premiered at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2022, directed by Josh Roche.
    Show book
  • Lucy Kirkwood Plays: One (NHB Modern Plays) - cover

    Lucy Kirkwood Plays: One (NHB...

    Lucy Kirkwood

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    Since her debut in 2008, Lucy Kirkwood has firmly established herself as a leading playwright of her generation, the writer of a series of savagely funny, highly intelligent and beautifully observed plays that tackle the pressing issues of our times.
    This collection, with an introduction by the author, brings together five of her plays, starting with the wild and riotously funny farce, Tinderbox (Bush Theatre, 2008), a disturbing vision of a dystopian future where England is dissolving into the sea, realised with 'off-kilter imaginative flair' (The Times).
    Written for Clean Break theatre company, it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now (Arcola Theatre, 2009; winner of the John Whiting Award) is a devastating report from the hidden world of Eastern European women trafficked to London to work in the sex industry.
    The previously unpublished small hours (Hampstead Theatre, 2011), a collaboration with Ed Hime, directed by Katie Mitchell, is an intimate dissection of the claustrophobic world of a new mother struggling to cope on her own.
    The sharply satirical NSFW (Royal Court, 2012) is a 'richly absorbing and inventive' (Telegraph) look at power games, privacy and gender politics in the media.
    The volume concludes with Chimerica (Almeida Theatre and West End, 2013), a gripping and provocative examination of the shifting balance of power between East and West. Winner of multiple awards, including the Olivier and Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Play, the Evening Standard Best Play Award and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, Chimerica is 'gloriously rich and mind-expanding' (Guardian), and a 'tremendously bold piece of writing' (Evening Standard).
    Show book
  • Nsfw - cover

    Nsfw

    Lucy Kirkwood

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    Lucy Kirkwood's sharp comedy looks at power games and privacy in the media and beyond.
    Carrie's getting them out for the lads, Charlotte's just grateful to have a job, Sam's being asked to sell more than his body, and Aidan's trying to keep Doghouse magazine from going under. Set in the cut-throat media world, Lucy Kirkwood's timely new comedy exposes power games and privacy in the age of Photoshop.
    [NSFW = Not Safe For Work, online material which the viewer may not want to be seen accessing in a public or formal setting such as at work.]
    Show book
  • Mosquitoes (NHB Modern Plays) - cover

    Mosquitoes (NHB Modern Plays)

    Lucy Kirkwood

    • 0
    • 1
    • 0
    Lucy Kirkwood's new play is about families and particle physics. It premieres at the National Theatre, London, in July 2017.
    Alice is a scientist. She lives in Geneva. As the Large Hadron particle collider starts up in 2008, she is on the brink of the most exciting work of her life, searching for the Higgs Boson.
    Jenny is her sister. She lives in Luton. She spends a lot of time Googling.
    When tragedy throws them together, the collision threatens them all with chaos.
    Show book