''A Dance of Moths'' is the third

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

-born writer

Goh Poh Seng Goh Poh Seng (; July 1936 – 10 January 2010) was a Singaporean dramatist, novelist, doctor and poet, was born in Kuala Lumpur, British Malaya in 1936. He was educated at Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur, received his medical degree from Uni ...

,Hedwig, Anuar. "Foreword", ''A Dance of Moths'', Select Books: Singapore, 1995. first published in 1995 by Select Books. It tells the story of two Chinese Singaporean, one a creative designer of an advertising firm and the other an accounts clerk.

Plot synopsis

Divided into three parts and set in Singapore, the dual protagonists are followed through in the novel in alternate chapters. Ong Kian Teck is a creative designer of an advertising firm who has an extra-marital affair and faces estrangement from his wife. Chan Kok Leong is an accounts clerk who tries to free himself from the drudgery of his job. The latter lives in a small HDB flat in

Toa Payoh Toa Payoh (, ta, தோ பாயோ) is a planning area and matured residential town located in the northern part of the Central Region of Singapore. Toa Payoh planning area borders Bishan and Serangoon to the north, the Central Water Catc ...

, and has a retarded sister whom his mother dutifully brings up. The connection between the two men are not made clear until the very last chapter of the book.

References

1995 novels Singaporean novels Novels set in Singapore {{1990s-novel-stub