Skip to main content

Sandi Tan

Biography

Sandi Tan

Sandi Tan was born in Singapore and has an MFA in screenwriting from Columbia University. She directed the 2018 Netflix film Shirkers, which won a Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival, was named Best Documentary of 2018 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Oscar for Best Documentary. THE BLACK ISLE was her debut novel. She will be directing her film adaptation of Elif Batuman’s novel THE IDIOT. She lives in Los Angeles.

Sandi Tan

Books by Sandi Tan

Lurkers
by Sandi Tan - Fiction

The residents of Santa Claus Lane do their best to stay out of each other’s way, but desire, fury and mischief too often propel these suburban neighbors to collide. Precocious Korean American sisters Mira and Rosemary find their world rocked by a suicide, and they must fight to keep their home; a charismatic and creepy drama teacher grooms his students; a sardonic gay horror novelist finds that aging is more terrifying than any monster; and a white hippie mom and her adopted Vietnamese daughter realize that their anger binds them rather than pushes them apart.

The Black Isle
by Sandi Tan - Historical Fiction

Uprooted from Shanghai with her father and twin brother, young Cassandra finds the Black Isle's bustling, immigrant-filled seaport, swampy jungle, and grand rubber plantations a sharp contrast to the city of her childhood. And she soon makes another discovery: the Black Isle is swarming with ghosts. Even as she becomes a fearless young woman, the Isle's dark forces won't let her go. War is looming, and Cassandra wonders if her unique gift might be her beloved island's only chance for salvation.