Ponti

<p><b>'Remarkable</b><b>'</b><b> – Ian McEwan</b><br><br><b>Shortlisted for Hearsts' Big Book Award 2018.</b><br><br>Set in 2003 in the sweltering heat of Singapore, Sharlene Teo's <i>Ponti </i>begins as sixteen-year-olds Szu and Circe develop an intense friendship. For Szu it offers an escape from Amisa, her beautiful, cruel mother – once an actress, and now the silent occupant of a rusty house. But for Circe, their friendship does the opposite, bringing her one step closer to the fascinating, unknowable Amisa.<br><br>Seventeen years later, Circe finds herself adrift and alone. And then a project comes up at work, a remake of the cult seventies horror film series ‘Ponti’, the same series that defined Amisa’s short-lived film career. Suddenly Circe is knocked off balance: by memories of the two women she once knew, by guilt, and by a lost friendship that threatens her conscience . . .<br><br><b>Longlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2019.</b><br><b>Shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Fiction, with a Sense of Place Award.</b></p>