Memories come thick and heavy like the rains that fall in the jungle. Dense droplets wash the leaves and soak into the ground, cleansing the acrid smell of rubber, cleansing the jungle of its sins. I hear my mother’s voice. No more secrets, Philip, I promise. Someone is coming, get ready.
Philip Goundry is 93 and living out his days quietly in a care home in England when a young researcher from Singapore arrives, wanting to learn more about his former life in Malaya for the Singapore archives.
His memory growing fitful, Philip is torn between wanting to unburden himself and staying silent, as he has done all these years, about the sinister and shocking events of his childhood on a Malayan rubber plantation. The truth, however, has a habit of winning.
Praise
‘A beautifully written, gripping thriller about history and memory and how they intersect.’
– Sophie Hannah, Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author
About the author
T. A. Morton is a Singapore-based Irish/Australian writer. In 2020 she was shortlisted for the Virginia Prize for Fiction and the Bridport Prize. She is currently completing her Masters in Crime and Thriller Writing at Cambridge University.
