Epigram Books Fiction Prize Winners Series

--Winner, Singapore Book Awards 2017 (Best Fiction Title)-- --Winner of the 2015 Epigram Books Fiction Prize-- During the Christmas holidays in 2004, an earthquake in the Indian Ocean triggers a tsunami that devastates fourteen countries. Two couples from Singapore are vacationing in Phuket when the tsunami strikes. Alternating between the aftermath of the catastrophe and past events that led these characters to that fateful moment, Now That It's Over weaves a tapestry of causality and regret, and chronicles the physical and emotional wreckage wrought by natural and manmade disasters.

--Winner of Singapore Book Awards 2018, Best Fiction Title & Best Book Cover Design--  --Winner of the 2016 Epigram Books Fiction Prize--  When young medusa Ria inadvertently turns an entire village to stone, she and her older sister flee to Nelroote, an underground settlement populated by other non-humans also marginalised by society. There she becomes their gatekeeper, hoping to seek redemption and love…until her friendship with a man from above threatens to dismantle the city she swore to protect.

--Winner of the 2018 Epigram Books Fiction Prize--  Sukhin is a thirty-five-year-old teacher who lives alone. His life consists of reading, working and visiting his parents' to rearrange his piles of "collectibles". He has only one friend, another teacher who has managed to force Sukhin into a friendship by sheer doggedness. While on an errand one afternoon in Chinatown, he encounters a homeless person who recognises him. This chance reunion turns Sukhin's well-planned life upside down, and the pair learns about love and sacrifice over their shared fondness for cake.

--Winner of the 2020 Epigram Books Fiction Prize--  When a renegade prophet vanishes in a cloud of pigeons in Kuala Lumpur, chorister and first witness Gabriel finds himself press-ganged into a wild road trip down the Malaysian coast. Meanwhile, in a sleepy town by the sea, Lydia traces the links between her late grandaunt's eccentric lover and her involvement in the Communist Emergency. As Lydia and Gabriel enter a shadowy mythology of serpents, Sufi saints and plainclothes gods, they must grapple with the theologies and histories they once trusted, in a country more perilously punk than they'd ever conceived of.

--Co-Winner of the 2021 Epigram Books Fiction Prize--  Sally Bong is the typical do-gooder. But her journey as an exemplary citizen of Singapore is put into question when she meets people on the margins, upending everything she has learned in school. In a follow-up to the hilarious Let's Give It Up for Gimme Lao!, Sebastian Sim delves deeper into a nation's psyche with more shrewd humour than ever before.

--Winner of the 2022 Epigram Books Fiction Prize--  Jasmine Leong wants to be the next CEO of Phoenix, her family's billion-ringgit company known especially for its bak kwa. But when Jasmine discovers she is actually a Malay Muslim, her newfound identity threatens to upend her life and ambitions. Set in Kuala Lumpur and other areas of Malaysia, The Accidental Malay examines the human cost of a country's racial policies, and paints a portrait of a woman unwilling to accept the fate history has designated for her.

--Winner of the 2023 Epigram Books Fiction Prize-- A peek into the lives of Indian women learning to swim. An eclectic group of Indian women living in a condominium in Singapore are determined to learn how to swim. To accomplish this, they must challenge cultural taboos, paddle against the tide of ingrained beliefs, tread carefully past family members, and dive deep into their pooled psyche to let go of things held dear. The Campbell Gardens Ladies' Swimming Class goes beneath the surface to fathom what hinders these women from owning the water. It plunges into unexpected situations and encounters unusual role models who help uplift these women and make them believe that nothing is impossible.