Read Your Way Through Singapore
10 Books to Inspire and Inform
Singapore is not what you think it is.
And that’s the beauty of it.
A city of rules that’s obsessed with reinvention. A place that feels both manicured and mysterious. It hums with late-night hawker stalls, state slogans, and bursts of tropical rain. It’s clean but never sterile.
I’ve wandered alleyways blasting heat from A/C units. I've eaten Char Kway Teow and drank Tiger beer next to uncles arguing over the day’s headlines. I’ve heard the silence in a country that rarely raises its voice.
Singapore, like a good book, is full of subtext.
It’s a city-state that tells you what it wants to be —efficient, global, green— but also keeps a quieter archive of ghosts and gods, of unsaid things, of dreams deferred or hidden in plain sight.
These ten books won’t unlock the city. But they might take you beyond the skyline and Changi’s terminal waterfall into the layered stories that reflect what Singapore is, and what it’s still becoming. I’ve also included links to the writers featured here who are on Substack, so you can follow their work directly.
Non-Fiction:
Singapore: A Biography – Mark R. Frost & Yu-Mei Balasingamchow
The best starting point. Sweeping but deeply human, this book tells Singapore’s story through the lives of its people: pirates, immigrants, soldiers, dreamers, and not just its policies or politicians.
Lion City – Jeevan Vasagar
A sharply observed portrait of a country that’s both a model student and a quiet control freak.
Singapore Hawker Centres – Lily Kong
More than a book about food, this is a book about people. It unpacks the social, historical, and emotional weight of hawker centres, Singapore’s open-air dining halls, as sites of memory, identity, and everyday magic.
This Could Be Home – Pico Iyer
A meditative essay about impermanence and belonging through the lens of the Raffles Hotel.
Notes From An Even Smaller Island – Neil Humphreys
This is a funny, irreverent, affectionate look at the island through an expat’s eyes, full of heart and hawker food.
Raffles and the British Invasion of Java – Tim Hannigan
Forget the statues, this is the real Raffles: opportunist, empire-builder, myth-maker.
Hard Choices: Challenging the Singapore Consensus – Donald Low (Editor)
A rare, reasoned critique of the Singapore model from within. These essays tackle uncomfortable questions about inequality, governance, and freedom with clarity and courage.
Fiction:
Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan
It’s fun. It’s flashy. It’s wildly over-the-top and somehow still emotionally honest. Kwan’s mega-hit skewers high society while showcasing the textures of modern Singapore: the slang, the food, the family politics behind every meal.
If We Dream Too Long – Goh Poh Seng
The first true Singaporean novel. Quiet, introspective, and gently melancholic, it captures the listless yearning of youth in a rapidly changing city.
The Singapore Grip – J.G. Farrell
A biting satire of colonial hubris, set during the fall of Singapore in WWII. Farrell’s prose is darkly comic and deeply human, exposing the absurdities of empire with tragic timing.
If this list got you thinking differently about Singapore, there’s more where that came from. Subscribe for more literary travel guides—no passport required.
If you’d prefer to support through photography, I also sell prints. And if you spot a photo in a story that you like and isn’t listed, just reach out. I’m happy to do special runs at no extra cost.
Thanks for the mention Scott. To this, I would add Mary Turnbull, A History of Modern Singapore, and Cherian George, Singapore: the Air-Conditioned Nation, which remains the best title of any book about Singapore (and one of the best titles of any book, ever).