PONTI

Ian McEwan gave this debut novel a huge punt on the cover, and that was good enough for me! It’s Singapore, 2003. Teenage Szu is being bullied at school and feels isolated at home: she lives with her mother, Amisa, a retired movie star who was once hugely successful and glamorous but is now sick and dying, and her aunt, a medium (not a particularly good one, although it’s her income that’s keeping them all going). Szu is pretty much alone in the world until she meets Circe, a new girl at school. Though from very different backgrounds, their friendship gets them through the hardships of school, relationships and the death of Szu’s mother.

Ponti is about friendship, loss and guilt, and it’s beautifully written: Teo has a lovely, gentle, mindful way of portraying deep loneliness.

And to quote McEwan: ‘Remarkable… With brilliant descriptive power and human warmth, Sharlene Teo summons the darker currents of modernity… her characters glow with life and humour and minutely observed desperation.’ I loved it.