''The Bondmaid'' is 1998 novel by
Catherine Lim
Catherine Lim Poh Imm (, born 21 March 1942) is a Singaporean fiction author known for writing about Singapore society and of themes of traditional Chinese culture. Hailed as the "doyenne of Singapore writers", Lim has published nine collectio ...
, which tells a tragic love story of Wu, the master of a household, and Han, his maid, in 1950s
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 ...
.
Plot
Sold into servitude at age of four by her own mother and treated harshly by fellow
bondmaid
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
s, Han forms a bond with Wu, who is the grandson of a head housemaid. Their friendship becomes doomed love when Wu moves to the United States, and Han find herself stuck with jealous bondmaids and Wu's relatives in Singapore. Both face additional trials until Han's death. The book ends when Wu and Han's son enters the household.
External links
The Bondmaid at goodreads
References
1998 novels
Novels set in the 1950s
Novels set in Singapore
Novels about slavery
Singaporean novels
Singaporean romance novels
Historical romance novels
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