Ministry of Moral Panic by Amanda Lee Koe

Ministry of Moral Panic is an extraordinary debut collection and the introduction of a revelatory new voice.īorn in Singapore and based in New York, Amanda Lee Koe is the youngest winner of the Singapore Literature Prize for her first short story collection Ministry of Moral Panic, shortlisted for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt's Internationaler Literaturpreis, and the Frankfurt Book Fair's LiBeraturpreis. Ministry of Moral Panic by Amanda Lee Koe Publisher: Epigram Books Heartfelt and sexy, the stories of Amanda Lee Koe encompass a skewed world fraught. InMinistry of Moral Panic, medical intervention by psychiatrists to cure diseases of depression,self-injury, and psychosis are misguided and prove futile as characters remain incorrigible aftertreatment.

Told in strikingly original prose, these are fictions that plough, relentlessly, the possibilities of understanding Singapore and her denizens discursively, off-centre. Koe’s weaving of these examples into her story shows how the state’s officiating of its various conservative moral panics against non-conservative and non-status-quo behaviours trickles down into the psyche of the majority population. Heartfelt and sexy, the stories of Amanda Lee Koe encompass a skewed world fraught with prestige anxiety, moral relativism, sexual frankness, and the improbable necessity of human connection. Rehash national icons: the truth about racial riot fodder-girl Maria Hertogh living out her days as a chambermaid in Lake Tahoe, a mirage of the Merlion as a ladyboy working Orchard Towers, and a high-stakes fantasy starring the still-suave lead of the 1990s TV hit serial The Unbeatables. Meet an over-the-hill Pop Yé-yé singer with a faulty heart, two conservative middle-aged women holding hands in the Galápagos, and the proprietor of a Laundromat with a penchant for Cantonese songs of heartbreak. In this book, the author takes risk after risk to create fresh perspectives and interpretations of our national myths – and they pay off.

This award-winning debut collection from Amanda Lee Koe plumbs the depths of Singaporean memory to present stories about sex, morality and human connection.