The title refers to an ambitious postwar project in Singapore to expand the shoreline, giving the growing population more land. Yet Heng's novel is actually about the people most affected by this, those who live along the shore and make their living by fishing.
Ah Boon is a boy who isn't cut out to be a fisherman. He is even afraid of water. Yet when he goes out into the sea one day with his father and older brother, they find islands that weren't there before. And in fact, they can't be found again without Ah Boon. These disappearing islands are home to countless fish that help his family and neighbors prosper.
Ah Boon's soulmate is a girl named Siok Mei. They promise to love each other forever. Trouble comes when they become involved in student protests as they get older. Siok Mei becomes fully committed to the Communists, while Ah Boon decides to go back home. She marries someone else. He does, too.
In time he joins the Gah Men, the government men who are pushing the reclamation project. He talks his family into moving into apartments. How does this project, the mysterious islands and Siok Mei come together at the crisis point of Ah Boon's life? Read the story to find out.
I don't think the supernatural aspect of the novel — those islands — really works. Too many questions remain unanswered. Why can only Ah Boon find them at first, yet others can find them later? What is their meaning? Why is this the only supernatural part of his life? Why place disappearing islands at the heart of what is otherwise a historical novel?
So, yes, Heng's novel is less than totally satisfying. Good, but not outstanding.
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