How We Disappeared: LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020

By Jing-Jing Lee

A beautiful tale of endurance, identity, and memory in WWII Singapore, for fans of Min Jin Lee's Pachinko and Nguyen Phan Que Mai's The Mountains Sing

Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked. Only three survivors remain, one of them a tiny child.

In a neighbouring village, seventeen-year-old Wang Di is bundled into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military rape camp. In the year 2000, her mind is still haunted by her experiences there, but she has long been silent about her memories of that time. It takes twelve-year-old Kevin, and the mumbled confession he overhears from his ailing grandmother, to set in motion a journey into the unknown to discover the truth.

Weaving together two timelines and two life-changing secrets, How We Disappeared is an evocative, profoundly moving and utterly dazzling novel heralding the arrival of a new literary star.

Shortlisted for the 2020 Singapore Literature Prize * Longlisted for the HWA Debut Crown

'A heartbreaking but hopeful story about memory, trauma and ultimately love.' New York Times

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Release date: Apr 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781786074133

Jing-Jing Lee

Jing-Jing Lee was born and raised in Singapore. She earned a master's degree in creative writing from Oxford in 2011 and has since seen her poetry and short stories published in various journals and anthologies. How We Disappeared is her first novel. She currently lives in Amsterdam.

Reviews for How We Disappeared

[Linh · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful book, a must-read about the horror of comfort women

[debbiemccauley-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A story of innocent young women, abducted from their homes and forced into sex slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Locked into tiny rooms, starved, beaten and raped day and night by 30 to 50 men per day, unable to escape and 'disappeared' if they became infected or pregnant. It's no wonder that by the end of World War II, 90 percent of these erroneously named “comfort women” had died in one way or another. This was always going to be a difficult topic to tell and I think that Lee has done a great job. In the year 2000 Wang Di's older husband has dies just before she has had to move into a new, modern flat in a different neighbourhood. They didn't have any children together (although her husband's first family were murdered by the Japanese), and the solitary life of a widow in Singapore is bringing up the old memories of how she was firstly unwanted by her family, and then brutally used by Japanese soldiers during their invasion of 1943-1945. At the same time 12-year-old Kevin's grandmother suffers a stroke and her health starts to decline fast. While on her deathbed, and thinking she is talking to Kevin's father, she makes a startling confession. When she dies, Kevin tries to uncover the truth about who his father really is, one that will lead him to Wang Di. Compelling. The story of a massive wrong that can never be righted and an apology that is yet to be given by a country that doesn't seem to care.

[mishker-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As World War II rages on, the people of Singapore believe that they are relatively safe on their tiny island with few resources, especially with British Troops around. However, the Japanese invade with force. Deadly air raids leave few survivors. Other villages are raided and young women are taken for the pleasure of Japanese Soldiers. At seventeen, Wang Di is on of the many young woman taken from her family to serve as a comfort woman. Wang Di was forcibly raped for years and then shamed when she returned home, never talking about what happened to her or the friends she made. Wang Di's parents quickly find her a husband. Soon Wei is much older than Wang Di, a widower whose wife and child perished in the air raids. In 2000, Kevin is dealing with the death of his grandma who admitted a secret to Kevin right before she died. Kevin tries to put the pieces of the past together in order to help his father heal.How We Disappeared is an absolutely beautiful story about the horrific truth about what happened to the people of Singapore. I had heard of the comfort women before, but had not been exposed to the reality of their situation. Wang Di, like many of the real comfort women, were taken as children to houses where they were beaten, starved, and forcibly raped by dozens of Japanese soldiers a day. Wang Di's hope was what pulled her through the brutality . The writing of Wang Di's time in the brothel was direct and honest, but through Wang Di's voice, there was always a glimmer of what could be. I was surprised at the amount of shame the survivors among the comfort women faced even among their family. Kevin search for the truth weaves together the narrative of Wang Di, Soon Wei and his grandmother in a surprising way. Though the time hops and change in voice happens quickly, Kevin's search is what allows for healing and truth. Touching and raw, How We Disappeared is a story of survival, love and healing after tragedy. This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

[eyes92c · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Comfort women, one story!I have read quite a few novels and attended at least one heart wrenching play over the past few years about Comfort Women. Basically women taken and forced to be sex slaves in brothels set up by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II to service their occupation troops. These women were treated as little more than animals. Their circumstances, their treatment and their violation was horrific. Disease and brutality with no quarter given marched hand in hand. The problem of reintegration was real for most of these women. The notion of someone from the younger generation, in this instance Kevin, discovering or questioning the life of an elder (parent, grandparent) is a frequently used trope. JIng-Jing Lee has used this method to advantage. Kevin becomes the agent for healing.The story of Wang Di, taken from her village at gun point on the Singapore Peninsula by Japanese invaders and interred as a sex slave is atrocious. It was August 1942. Wang Di was seventeen, some were only girls of twelve.The emotional and physical trauma Wang Di experienced played as a self destroying loop throughout her life. She was convinced that what she had become during the war was because she was, "as unworthy as [her] parents had always suggested. That [she] would have been better born as a boy."What she really was, was a war crimes survivor, who had come out the other side of an horrific and inhumane experience. She was not the criminal! I must say that I felt somewhat disconnected in the moving between the characters' perspectives. For me it was not a smooth interweaving.Nevertheless for those interested, this is a very worthwhile read.There is still conflict around Japanese apologies to Comfort Women, and this is now nearly 75 years after the end of the war. Many of the women survivors have died, in shame and poverty without family, without support, without restitution. There have been some apologies, but for many of the survivors that was not enough. This declining battle (declining due to the current age of the women) is noted in the following press release from the South China Morning Post, August 17, 2017 "Huang Youliang, a former "comfort woman", died at the age of 90 on August 12. [2017] A total of 24 Chinese comfort women, including Huang, have attempted to sue the Japanese government in four cases since 1995, all have failed." Work's like Jing-Jing Lee's are important to keep the issue alive.I can't leave without mentioning the book's cover. It calls out to you! The girl almost disappears into the foliage, as though disappearing into a dream state, disappeared perhaps from a family's memory. And it begs the point, how does anyone survive what Wang Di was subjected to? As an aesthetic response to the story it's outstanding. As a starting point for reflective discussion it's more than interesting. The sublime blue-green colors bring to mind The Green Lady, by Vladimir Tretchikoff, overlaid with motifs reminiscent of Henri Rousseau. Nicely done!A Hanover Square Press ARC via NetGalley

[susan0316 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have read many books about the effects of WWII on the people of Europe but this is the first book that I've read about life in Singapore during the occupation by the Japanese. Parts of this book were difficult to read but the novel is beautifully written and a wonderful testament to the women who survived this time period. It is a book that I won't soon forget.This novel is told in 2 time periods. The first time period in 1942 when 16 year old Wang Di is taken from her home and family and sent to be a 'comfort woman' for the troops. It was difficult to read about her sexual slavery and the life she was forced into. The second time period is 1960. Wang Di lives with her son, daughter in law and grandson, Kevin. Twelve year old Kevin is loved by his family but bullied by his friends. When he inadvertently learns a little bit about the secret his grandmother has been keeping for her long life, he decides to do some detective work and bring the secrets to light for the family. He starts down a path that will change his life and the life of his family.Weaving together these two timelines this debut novel educates us on a little-known period of history, revealing the strength and bravery shown by numerous women in the face of terrible cruelty. A profoundly moving novel, it is based partly on the author's great-grandfather’s experiences.This ultimately is the story of love and family and the resilience to overcome whatever happens in life.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Singapore, World War 2. Teenage Wang Di is taken, along with other young women from her village, to serve as a comfort woman in a brothel for Japanese troops.Singapore, 2000. Elderly Wang Di has just buried her husband, who married her despite her past--he had his own wartime horror story, though she knows little of it. Meanwhile, another elderly woman, on her deathbed, confesses to her tween grandson Kevin what she did during the war. He takes what she has told him, determined to find the truth.This novel looks at life in Singapore during the war--when Singapore was not the huge modern city we know today, but a British island outpost with many villages. Occupied by Japan, entire villages were massacred, women taken, rationing and hunger. The world Kevin knows in 2000 is very different--a crowded, modern metropolis. Lee examines themes of family and what makes a family, and friendship, shame, forgiveness, and memory.