Ministry of Moral Panic

Amanda Lee Koe

Jan 2013 · Epigram Books

About this ebook

--Winner of Best Fiction Title for Singapore Book Awards 2016--

--Winner of the Singapore Literature Prize for Fiction 2014--

--Longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award 2014--

--Selected by The Business Times as one of the Top 10 English Singapore books from 1965–2015--

Amanda Lee Koe (Delayed Rays of a Star) made her mark with this debut collection of short fiction, with tales as colourful as their characters.

Meet an over-the-hill pop yé-yé singer with a faulty heart; two conservative middle-aged women holding hands in the Galápagos, and the proprietor of a Laundromat with a penchant for Cantonese songs of heartbreak. Find out the truth about racial riot fodder-girl Maria Hertogh, now living out her days as a chambermaid in Lake Tahoe; a mirage of the Merlion as a ladyboy working Orchard Towers; and a high-stakes fantasy starring the still-suave lead of the 1990s TV hit serial, The Unbeatables.

Ministry of Moral Panic is an extraordinary collection and the introduction of a revelatory new voice. Heartfelt and sexy, the stories of Amanda Lee Koe encompass a skewed world fraught with prestige anxiety, moral relativism, sexual frankness, and the improbable necessity of human connection. Told in strikingly original prose, these are stories that plough the possibilities of understanding Singapore and her denizens.

Ratings and reviews

absolutely delightful to read. straightforward style of writing, honest and raw. loved the book. well done Amanda!

About the author

Amanda Lee Koe is a 2013 Honorary Fellow at the International Writing Program, University of Iowa. She is also the fiction editor of Esquire (Singapore), editor of creative non-fiction magazine POSKOD.SG and co-editor of literary journal Ceriph. With Ng Yi-Sheng, she spearheaded and edited Eastern Heathens (Ethos Books), an anthology subverting Asian folklore. Her short fiction has seen publication in anthologies, magazines and literary journals from Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany and the United States.