The Non-existent Lover and other stories

Synopsis

Featuring a selection of short stories written between the 1960s and 2000, this collection charts Yeng Pway Ngon's evolution in subject matter and style over time. The earlier stories, written at a time when Yeng was known for his modernist poetry, exude solitude and melancholy, and deal with themes such as the wanton rebelliousness of youth, or the poet's shuttling between death and dream. From the 1970s onwards, he turned his attention to societal concerns— depicting a lonely writer who falls in love with one of his own characters, an unhappy man yearning for life abroad who ends up in a mental hospital, an unemployed man who finds joy in his friendship with a white bird, and another, who worries that he might turn into a flower. Other stories introduce us to a parrot who gets taken to court, an ant enamoured with his silhouette, and a disembodied mouth worshipped by the public. Sarcastic, darkly humorous and surreal, Yeng's writing depicts everyday life in all its absurdism and glory.

About The Author

Yeng Pway Ngon (1947-2021) received the Cultural Medallion for Literature in 2003. He published 31 volumes of poetry, fiction, essays, plays and literary criticism in Chinese. In 2013, he taught novel and short story writing at Nanyang Technological University's Chinese Language Department, under the Chinese Writing Residency Project. In the same year, he received the S.E.A.Write Award (Southeast Asian Writers Award). Yeng received the National Book Development Council's Book Award for 1987-88 and the Singapore Literature Prize in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. His poetry and novels have been translated into English and Italian.