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Rachel Heng

Biography

Rachel Heng

Rachel Heng is the author of the novels THE GREAT RECLAMATION --- named an April 2023 Indie Next Pick and a Most Anticipated Book by TIME Magazine, Washington Post, Oprah Daily and others --- and SUICIDE CLUB, which was a national bestseller in Singapore and has been translated into 10 languages.

Rachel's short fiction has been longlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award, listed among Best American Short Stories’ Distinguished Stories, and has been published in The New Yorker, Best Small Fictions, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Best New Singaporean Short Stories and elsewhere. Her nonfiction has been listed among Best American Essays’ Notable Essays and has been published in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, The Telegraph and elsewhere. She has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, Fine Arts Work Center, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, Hedgebrook, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop and the National Arts Council of Singapore.

Born and raised in Singapore, Rachel received her BA in Comparative Literature & Society from Columbia University and her MFA in Fiction and Playwriting from UT Austin's Michener Center for Writers. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at Wesleyan University.

Rachel Heng

Books by Rachel Heng

The Great Reclamation
by Rachel Heng - Fiction, Historical Fiction

Ah Boon is born into a fishing village amid the heat and beauty of 20th-century coastal Singapore in the waning years of British rule. He spends his days playing with the neighbor girl, Siok Mei. But when he discovers he has the unique ability to locate bountiful, movable islands that no one else can find, he feels a new sense of obligation and possibility --- something to offer the community and impress the spirited girl he has come to love. By the time they are teens, Ah Boon and Siok Mei are caught in the tragic sweep of history: the Japanese army invades, the resistance rises, grief intrudes, and the future of the fishing village is in jeopardy. As the nation hurtles toward rebirth, the two friends must decide who they want to be and what they are willing to give up.

Suicide Club: A Novel About Living
by Rachel Heng - Dystopian Fiction, Fiction

Lea Kirino is a “Lifer,” which means that a roll of the genetic dice has given her the potential to live forever --- if she does everything right. But her perfect life is turned upside down when she spots her estranged father on a crowded sidewalk. His return marks the beginning of her downfall as she is drawn into his mysterious world of the Suicide Club, a network of powerful individuals and rebels who reject society’s pursuit of immortality, and instead choose to live --- and die --- on their own terms. In this future world, death is not only taboo; it’s also highly illegal. Soon Lea is forced to choose between a sanitized immortal existence and a short, bittersweet time with a man she has never really known, but who is the only family she has left in the world.