Confrontation

Selected by The Business Times as one of the Best Books of 2013

Adi loves his life in the kampung: climbing the ancient banyan tree, watching ten-cent movies with his friends, fetching worms for the village bomoh. The residents of Kampung Pak Buyung may not have many material goods, but their simple lives are happy. However, looming on the horizon are political upheaval, race riots, gang wars and the Konfrontasi with Indonesia.

Mohamed Latiff Mohamed, three-time winner of the Singapore Literature Prize, brilliantly dramatises the period of uncertainty and change in the years leading up to Singapore's merger with Malaya. Seen through the unique perspective of the young Malay boy Adi, this fundamental period in Singaporean history is brought to life with masterful empathy. In the tradition of Ben Okri's The Famished Road and Anita Desai's The Village By the Sea, Confrontation is an incredible evocation of village life and of the consequences that come from political alignment and re-alignment.

The original Malay edition of Confrontation, titled Batas Langit, was awarded Consolation Prize in 1999 for the Malay Literary Award organised by the Malay Language Council of Singapore, and selected in 2005 for the READ! Singapore nationwide reading initiative organised by the National Library Board.

"The book charms immediately with prose in the vein of the idyllic village stories of Indian writer R. K. Narayan, written in the 1940s. Like Narayan, Mohamed Latiff can turn the backbreaking labour of fetching water from a well into a lyrical adventure. [...] For non-Malay readers, Confrontation is an engrossing exploration of history from a different perspective, as it makes readers share Adi's dawning awareness of his family's social position and then his heady delight at the notion of a state where everyone will speak his language. Even for readers who know what happened next, the ending of the book comes as a shock, followed by a strong urge to read more from this disarmingly powerful voice."
—Akshita Nanda, The Straits Times

“Singapore in the turbulent 60’s is evoked through a narrative pungent with details—of communal wells, leaky zinc roofs and kerosene lamps. While a larger political drama unfolds, Mohamed Latiff Mohamed trains his sensitive and painterly prose on the eccentric characters of Kampung Pak Buyung and their sometimes funny, sometimes tragic lives.”
—Alfian Sa’at, author of Malay Sketches

“Confrontation is a ‘must-read’ for anyone keen to experience the anxiety and loss of the Malay community leading up to the separation of Singapore from Malaysia. Latiff’s deep exploration of shattered dreams and alienation in one’s own land recalls a time and place that no longer exists, with characters who are indelibly memorable.”
—Isa Kamari, Cultural Medallion winner and author of Intercession

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