{"product_id":"pre-order-billy-seetoh-co","title":"{Pre-Order} Billy, Seetoh \u0026 Co","description":"\u003ch3\u003eRelease 05 October 2026\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eby Kasan Goh\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eBilly, Seetoh \u0026amp; Co\u003c\/em\u003e is Kasan Goh’s semi-autobiographical first novel about immigrants – forced and voluntary – who seek a home and belonging.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"gmail-p2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBilly Chan, a Singaporean student, arrives in Thatcher’s Britain only to be shipwrecked when his family goes bankrupt and flee their homeland in disgrace. From Canada, they cast him thin lifelines.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"gmail-p2\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBilly is befriended by Seetoh, a boy from Ipoh who hatched a plan to escape his country life. Together with a ragtag posse of other migrant friends they – and Billy’s exiled family – struggle to find their own safe harbours.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn extraordinary new work, brimming with raw energy yet polished with the weight of experience – as befits the longform fiction début of an author in his 60s.\u003cbr\u003eGoh brings to life the world and perspectives of 1980s Singapore, “the island shaped like Aladdin’s lamp”, with a playful, polyglot, jazzy prose that hovers on the brink of magical realism, bringing together nostalgia, history (both personal and political), myth and dreams in a manner hitherto unseen in our nation’s literature.\u003cbr\u003eAmbitious, transnational, sexy and genre-smashing, this really could be a candidate for the great Singaporean novel.\u003cbr\u003e~ \u003cstrong\u003eNg Yi-Sheng (Utama, Lion City)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is an ambitious, highly literate novel. It sweeps the reader away into unfamiliar worlds, and makes familiar ones strange. A current of almost-laughter flows beneath its constantly modulating narrative voice. Its language is fresh, its imagery a panorama of bright and accurate detail. People love each other, rage at each other, feed and protect and betray and abandon each other, yet somehow find each other again in new configurations. It’s a moving and original piece of work, overflowing with life’s crazy, painful sweetness.\u003cbr\u003e~ \u003cstrong\u003eHelen Garner (\u003cem\u003eHow to End a Story\u003c\/em\u003e, Baillie Gifford Prize 2025)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn unabashed romp full of post-empire camp, and poignant by turns in its longing for home, Kasan Goh’s \u003cem\u003eBilly, Seetoh \u0026amp; Co\u003c\/em\u003e provides a diasporic counter-perspective to Singapore’s national development story of the Seventies and Eighties.\u003cbr\u003e~ \u003cstrong\u003eAnn Ang, literary scholar and writer\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGoh employs the device of an unreliable narrator who makes free with multiple literary forms: Bildungsroman, dream sequences, epistolary, Chinese epics and poetry.\u003cbr\u003eThese authorial tactics, which embed questions on national identity, diaspora and the discourses on East-West power shifts, make this an intellectually satisfying novel. \u003cbr\u003eTogether with the multiple allusions to the literatures of Singapore’s main cultural influences, \u003cem\u003eBilly, Seetoh \u0026amp; Co\u003c\/em\u003e reflects the nature of the story of Singapore told for Singapore and, of course, the world. \u003cbr\u003eI more than liked the novel. I felt a resonance with it. And found myself thinking that Goh’s way might be the only honest way for post-colonials to tell their stories.\u003cbr\u003eIts publication is significant.\u003cbr\u003e~ \u003cstrong\u003eChuah Guat Eng (\u003cem\u003eDays of Change\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eEchoes of Silence\u003c\/em\u003e)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e=====\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN: \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e9789811795039\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFormat: Paperback\u003cbr\u003eYear Published: 2020\u003cbr\u003eSize: \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e225mm x 152mm\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePages: 252\u003cbr\u003eRecommended Age: 3-7 years old\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woods in the Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49380204052654,"sku":"9789811795039","price":27.5,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2950\/5102\/files\/Billy_Seetoh_Co.webp?v=1789710380","url":"https:\/\/www.woodsinthebooks.sg\/products\/pre-order-billy-seetoh-co","provider":"Woods in the Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}