Sister Snake

Synopsis

A glittering, bold, darkly funny novel about two sisters—one in New York, one in Singapore—who are bound by an ancient secret.

Sisterhood is difficult for Su and Emerald. Su leads a sheltered, moneyed life as the picture-perfect wife of a conservative politician in Singapore. Emerald is a nihilistic sugar baby in New York, living from whim to whim and using her charms to make ends meet. But they share a secret: once, they were snakes, basking under a full moon in Tang dynasty China.

A thousand years later, their mysterious history is the only thing still binding them together. When Emerald experiences a violent encounter in Central Park and Su boards the next flight to New York, the two reach a tenuous reconciliation for the first time in decades. Su convinces Emerald to move to Singapore so she can keep an eye on her—but she soon begins to worry that Emerald’s irrepressible behaviour will out them both, in a sparkling, affluent city where everything runs like clockwork and any deviation from the norm is automatically suspect.

Razor-sharp, hilarious, and raw in emotion, Sister Snake, a reimagining of The Legend of the White Snake, is a novel about being seen for who you are—and, ultimately, how to live free.

About The Author

Amanda Lee Koe was the youngest winner of the Singapore Literature Prize for the story collection Ministry of Moral Panic (Epigram, 2014). It was longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and shortlisted for the Frankfurt Book Fair's LiBeraturpreis and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt's International Literature Prize.

Her novel, Delayed Rays of a Star, was published in 2019 by Doubleday (US) and Bloomsbury (UK). It was a Straits Times #1 Bestseller, a most anticipated title from ELLE, Los Angeles Times, Thrillist, USA Today, and one of NPR's Best Books of The Year.