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Stamford Hospital
Singapore, where driven foreign women have a hard time finding a Harvard-educated mother struggles to find an outlet for her loaded brain. Meanwhile, her marriage with an asexual husband, who has made Singapore their forever home in a Machiavellian call, unravels.
Stamford Hospital follows its disturbed protagonist over two nights, as Tarisa goes through familiar motions of motherhood for their child. The only difference this she hospitalizes the young Mia even though Mia is barely ill.
Using the hospital as childcare, Tarisa lives entrenched in her mind, facing demons whispering that the love she gets from this family unit won’t make her own life less devastating. But what is devastation anyway, when everything that leads to it can be rationalized?
Stamford Hospital follows its disturbed protagonist over two nights, as Tarisa goes through familiar motions of motherhood for their child. The only difference this she hospitalizes the young Mia even though Mia is barely ill.
Using the hospital as childcare, Tarisa lives entrenched in her mind, facing demons whispering that the love she gets from this family unit won’t make her own life less devastating. But what is devastation anyway, when everything that leads to it can be rationalized?
- GenresFiction
286 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2025
8 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 2, 2025
Thammika Songkaeo’s Stamford Hospital is not a light or cozy story, but there’s comfort in how real it feels. How it lays bare the burnout and isolation mothers face when personal identity gives way to family and societal expectations. I am not a mother yet but to me the book felt like someone finally putting into words the things mothers would have felt but never said out loud:
🧑🧑🧒Unhappy marriage - How Tarisa feels disconnected from her husband who has become more of a stranger than a romantic partner because of the lack of intimacy.
👩🏫Losing yourself or your career - How she dwells on the professional life she gave up in the US to live permanently in Singapore feeling isolated as an immigrant mother and from her own sense of self, which was tied to her ambition and education.
👩Having mixed feelings about being a mom - How she struggles with the reality of a full-time mother experiencing complex mix of feelings toward taking care of Mia and the same time a desire for a break from its constant fatigue.
🕛Wanting some freedom - How she finds an escape during Mia’s two nights hospital stay, allowing her a break from her domestic duties. She has gone to the library, attend dance classes and performances achieving a sense of personal space and autonomy.
😮💨Feeling tired and resentful - And finally how she accepts for the first time the silent challenges she is undergoing.
All these significant thoughts and reflections took place within the corners of Stamford Hospital.
🧑🧑🧒Unhappy marriage - How Tarisa feels disconnected from her husband who has become more of a stranger than a romantic partner because of the lack of intimacy.
👩🏫Losing yourself or your career - How she dwells on the professional life she gave up in the US to live permanently in Singapore feeling isolated as an immigrant mother and from her own sense of self, which was tied to her ambition and education.
👩Having mixed feelings about being a mom - How she struggles with the reality of a full-time mother experiencing complex mix of feelings toward taking care of Mia and the same time a desire for a break from its constant fatigue.
🕛Wanting some freedom - How she finds an escape during Mia’s two nights hospital stay, allowing her a break from her domestic duties. She has gone to the library, attend dance classes and performances achieving a sense of personal space and autonomy.
😮💨Feeling tired and resentful - And finally how she accepts for the first time the silent challenges she is undergoing.
All these significant thoughts and reflections took place within the corners of Stamford Hospital.
November 4, 2025
Stamford Hospital centers on Tarisa, an ambitious, Harvard-educated expatriate mother who feels exhausted, isolated, and trapped in a sexless marriage. To briefly escape the demands of motherhood, she checks her barely ill daughter into Stamford Hospital. This stay becomes a quiet, desperate act of self-preservation, offering her a rare moment of solitude and a chance to confront her internal struggles.
This book is a piercing portrait of burnout, resentment, loneliness, and the unspoken struggles of modern motherhood and marriage.
What struck me most about the story was how effectively the author uses the sterile, upscale setting of the hospital as a direct contrast to Tarisa’s internal chaos. In the end, Tarisa comes to a point of acceptance or acknowledgment of the devastation of a life unlived, while still choosing to stay within the structure she despises. I like that the ambiguity of the ending is very true-to-life.
✨ 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘌𝘈 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘴 𝘗𝘏. ✨
This book is a piercing portrait of burnout, resentment, loneliness, and the unspoken struggles of modern motherhood and marriage.
What struck me most about the story was how effectively the author uses the sterile, upscale setting of the hospital as a direct contrast to Tarisa’s internal chaos. In the end, Tarisa comes to a point of acceptance or acknowledgment of the devastation of a life unlived, while still choosing to stay within the structure she despises. I like that the ambiguity of the ending is very true-to-life.
✨ 𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘗𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘌𝘈 𝘷𝘪𝘢 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘴 𝘗𝘏. ✨
June 11, 2025
This is a fast-paced story of loneliness and motherhood tangled with complicated relationships. It follows the life of Tarisa, a young mother who is struggling with feelings of deep isolation and insecurities which come with being in a sexless marriage while trying to balance being a new mom and trying to find joy in motherhood. She is stuck between her ambitions as a Harvard graduate wanting to do research and her husband wanting to stay in Singapore where he feels seen. Her experience is when her daughter, Mia, gets admitted to the hospital and she gets one night to express how torn and lonely she is in a place where she feels like an outsider but is obligated to stay in due to her husband’s choices.
I liked how the writer has dived in-depth and displayed the emotions. The quiet and at times disturbing (more than I had expected the book to be) flow of thought of Tarisa which felt really nonchalant when it came to her daughter, made the whole reading experience more intriguing. She is tormented by her complicated and entangled feelings, brought together by the depleting sexual libido of her husband, his wish to stay in Singapore expecting her to give up a research opportunity back in America and her search for purpose while tackling being a new mom. We are thrown in the midst of it all and at times the perspective feels like word vomit rather than anything else.
The most striking description is when Mia gets admitted to the hospital which acts like an escape for Tarisa from her mom duties. She gets a break from the constant fatigue of childcare and explores her feelings by going out at night, she makes the reader as confused as she might be feeling. For instance, it's not that she hates her daughter Mia but she also does not like the fact of being around her all the time, which might feel cruel coming from a mom but is a very natural thing to feel. Mia ends up becoming the only positive light in Tarisa’s life and also the one to hold their little family together.
Thank you Penguin SEA for the copy.
I liked how the writer has dived in-depth and displayed the emotions. The quiet and at times disturbing (more than I had expected the book to be) flow of thought of Tarisa which felt really nonchalant when it came to her daughter, made the whole reading experience more intriguing. She is tormented by her complicated and entangled feelings, brought together by the depleting sexual libido of her husband, his wish to stay in Singapore expecting her to give up a research opportunity back in America and her search for purpose while tackling being a new mom. We are thrown in the midst of it all and at times the perspective feels like word vomit rather than anything else.
The most striking description is when Mia gets admitted to the hospital which acts like an escape for Tarisa from her mom duties. She gets a break from the constant fatigue of childcare and explores her feelings by going out at night, she makes the reader as confused as she might be feeling. For instance, it's not that she hates her daughter Mia but she also does not like the fact of being around her all the time, which might feel cruel coming from a mom but is a very natural thing to feel. Mia ends up becoming the only positive light in Tarisa’s life and also the one to hold their little family together.
Thank you Penguin SEA for the copy.
October 15, 2025
In so many words, Stamford Hospital is the tale of so many women who bear the burden of duty until they no longer know what carrying themselves feels like. Women who give their time, their bodies, their dreams, until there is nothing left for their own unfolding.
.
Thammika Songkaeo's novel tells this gentle loss with chilling precision in the life of Tarisa, a young mother torn between obligation and pleasure, love and isolation.
Tarisa's collapse is silent, and it is that that makes it so heartbreaking. She is educated, driven, capable and finds herself married to a man whose remoteness empties her out more than any fight could. His sexless reserve, his refusal to remain in Singapore, gradually overshadow her own desires. Nothing blows up; rather, everything fades. And in the fading, Tarisa loses herself.
.
The titular and poignant section of the book is the stay in the hospital. Tarisa brings in her daughter Mia, but it is actually her own strangulation that comes to seek healing. Inside its walls, she finally allows herself to accept the weariness she has been carrying the love mixed with anger, the tenderness mingled with isolation. It is awkward, even cruel at moments, but does not look away. Author allows Tarisa to speak in all her contradictions. What touched me the most was how recognizable it was. I could see bits of Tarisa in women I have known, and perhaps in bits of myself I never admit out loud. That desire to be seen. That exhaustion no sleep can heal. That overwhelming shame of wanting more, instead of wanting which is normal, natural, expected.
.
Tarisa is not always likable. Her mind is splintered, at times cruel. But in the rawness is the strength of the novel. The isolation of being needed without being wanted, the pain of love that no longer sustains, and the strength it takes to say that pain out loud in the book.
.
Stamford Hospital is beautifully done but it's not an easy read but a needed one. It haunts like a low grade bruise, reminding us of the unseen wounds many women bear and the strength it demands to call them by name.
.
.
Thammika Songkaeo's novel tells this gentle loss with chilling precision in the life of Tarisa, a young mother torn between obligation and pleasure, love and isolation.
Tarisa's collapse is silent, and it is that that makes it so heartbreaking. She is educated, driven, capable and finds herself married to a man whose remoteness empties her out more than any fight could. His sexless reserve, his refusal to remain in Singapore, gradually overshadow her own desires. Nothing blows up; rather, everything fades. And in the fading, Tarisa loses herself.
.
The titular and poignant section of the book is the stay in the hospital. Tarisa brings in her daughter Mia, but it is actually her own strangulation that comes to seek healing. Inside its walls, she finally allows herself to accept the weariness she has been carrying the love mixed with anger, the tenderness mingled with isolation. It is awkward, even cruel at moments, but does not look away. Author allows Tarisa to speak in all her contradictions. What touched me the most was how recognizable it was. I could see bits of Tarisa in women I have known, and perhaps in bits of myself I never admit out loud. That desire to be seen. That exhaustion no sleep can heal. That overwhelming shame of wanting more, instead of wanting which is normal, natural, expected.
.
Tarisa is not always likable. Her mind is splintered, at times cruel. But in the rawness is the strength of the novel. The isolation of being needed without being wanted, the pain of love that no longer sustains, and the strength it takes to say that pain out loud in the book.
.
Stamford Hospital is beautifully done but it's not an easy read but a needed one. It haunts like a low grade bruise, reminding us of the unseen wounds many women bear and the strength it demands to call them by name.
.
June 11, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyed Thammika Songkaeyo’s deep dive into Tarisa’s mind, which is hanging on to grace and sanity by a thread. Boredom is a conjurer of things unnatural and silly, and I love how Songkaeo writes down every strand of thought that crosses Tarisa’s mind and places them one after the other, resulting in a very believable portrayal of the insides of a frustrated, rotting mind.
May 24, 2025
Stamford Hospital by Thammika Songkaeo highlighted on the deep isolation & insecurities of a young woman finding joys in motherhood while struggling in a sexless marriage. Confronted by the choices of her ambitions & bigger dreams of achievement as a Harvard graduate to a life dedicated as a mother and wife in Singapore, Tarissa's own complex voice resonated loud with many others which may went through a similar path. The disturbing, quietude of her inner monologues of her sort of aloofness of her own daughter & the entanglement of complicated feelings about her husband, Chris's decreasing sexual libido led her to feeling more alone. Set in the backdrop of Singapore where her family is considered one of the more wealthy people as they live in a fancy apartment for riches, her husband came from a reputable wealthy family in Thailand, her good education from young age in America & graduated from Harvard yet her status as a foreign woman & as a woman caused her unable to fully secure a job that meet her qualifications. Instead, Tarissa was employed as an undervalued writer assistant for a small food magazine to which her works were undermined further when her role as a young mother was criticized by the misogynistic employer.
In a haunting quiet way, the story focused more on Tarissa's days of when her daughter, Mia fell sick and they admitted her into Stamford Hospital. The hospital became a place of her wanting to break free from the constant tiredness of childcare while her mind spiralling into a vague, depressing territory of her assessment of what lifes can she achieved without the constraint of her family & the responsibilities of being a mother. Her interactions with the 3 year old Mia were very mature as she treated her like an adult without the babyish talk and Mia was excellent in talking in full sentences & I found this unique because even if Tarissa seems want to get away from not playing with her daughter, dreading the time she had to spent with her, she was veru good in explaining things to her child and very patient at it too. A solid novel that discussed on the struggles of young mother & a wife in a complex dynamic marriage where love, desire & loathe interlapped which could made one person felt isolated in a far away country with the yearning of their ambitions left unfulfilled. Its dark and depressing reading through Tarissa's mind as she went back and forth relaying of her inner struggles with her life but Mia is a beacon of light and I like her as a character in the book as she became the key that hold the family together
Thank you to Penguin SEA for the review copy
In a haunting quiet way, the story focused more on Tarissa's days of when her daughter, Mia fell sick and they admitted her into Stamford Hospital. The hospital became a place of her wanting to break free from the constant tiredness of childcare while her mind spiralling into a vague, depressing territory of her assessment of what lifes can she achieved without the constraint of her family & the responsibilities of being a mother. Her interactions with the 3 year old Mia were very mature as she treated her like an adult without the babyish talk and Mia was excellent in talking in full sentences & I found this unique because even if Tarissa seems want to get away from not playing with her daughter, dreading the time she had to spent with her, she was veru good in explaining things to her child and very patient at it too. A solid novel that discussed on the struggles of young mother & a wife in a complex dynamic marriage where love, desire & loathe interlapped which could made one person felt isolated in a far away country with the yearning of their ambitions left unfulfilled. Its dark and depressing reading through Tarissa's mind as she went back and forth relaying of her inner struggles with her life but Mia is a beacon of light and I like her as a character in the book as she became the key that hold the family together
Thank you to Penguin SEA for the review copy
November 3, 2025
She could not believe how stereotypical she had become--a housewife, a sad one. There were so many that they were a library genre.
Synopsis:
Tarisa is a Harvard educated full-time mom in Singapore. She feels unsatisfied, in more ways than one. Chris is the husband with erectile dysfunction, and Mia is their two-year old daughter. When Mia falls ill, Tarisa takes her to Stamford Hospital and welcomes the change of pace in her discontented life.
Thoughts:
These are what I liked:
- Tarisa calling Chris out on his "invisible sexism"
- The writing. There are some beautiful lines here, like "Her tears surfaced, water condensed from a soul."
- I could feel how frustrated Tarisa was. As much as she annoyed me, I was invested!
What I'm not sure of:
- The title. I don't think it really fit the story.
- The use of the word "asexual" to describe Chris. I think erectile dysfunction and low libido is different from sexual identity.
- There are some parts in the story where it gets kind of rambling.
This book is about motherhood, sexism, letting go of dreams (finding new ones?), resentment but trying to make the best of it, and coming to grips with new identities from being husband & wife to being parents.
This book made me sad and frustrated, but I still enjoyed it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to root for or against Tarisa, but there were definitely moments when I felt for her. I felt all her frustrations, even though I was frustrated with her too. And there were moments where I really hated Chris, her husband. But it was redeemed in the end. The ending made me feel hopeful for Tarisa, and I really do hope she can find more satisfaction in her life.
I didn't expect the ending, but it brought up my rating from 3.5 stars to 4. I would be interested in what else Thammika Songkaeo will write about in the future.
How I found out about this: My book club did a bookstagram tour of this. I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for the tour and honest review.
Who should read this: If you like introspective reads about marital issues and Southeast Asian literature, this is for you.
-
Other quotes I like:
"She felt, at once, like what was coming up was both her choice and not."
"She had figured out, since she had quit her job a year and a half ago, that technology didn't help much with isolation."
There is so much we sign up for that we do not know we do. As if life worked like a website, with Terms & Conditions that we hastily, obliviously, agree to, eyeing the next page."
July 8, 2025
Stamford Hospital by Thammika Songkaeo
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
_______________________
📖 Review: Thank you for the copy of Stamford Hospital. I love supporting Thai authors. This book is an emotionally rollercoaster ride and very thought provoking. It makes me reflect the societal structure that we lived in. We followed Tarisa and we are inside her head. We see how she feels of being in a sexless marriage and as a mother. The story is set in Singapore.
What I love about this book
🏨 Tarisa's thoughts are so raw and honest. I empathise with her so much. She needs rest and a hug
🏨 The theme of motherhood is done so beautifully and it opens up discussion of mothers are their own individual outside of the family.
🏨 Tarisa's burn out and exhausted is written so well and I feel her exhaustion though the page
🏨 It discusses about being an immigrant in the United States
🏨 The discussion of third culture comes up in this book. It discusses a sense of belonging from both Tarisa and Chris. I see where both the characters are coming from and it does reflect real social dynamic
🏨 I love when Tarisa goes out to dance class for her own quality time, she deserves it.
🏨 The format of the book adds so much impact into the story. It makes it unique
Overall, I had a great time reading this book. I cannot wait for what Thammika Songkaeo writes next!
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
_______________________
📖 Review: Thank you for the copy of Stamford Hospital. I love supporting Thai authors. This book is an emotionally rollercoaster ride and very thought provoking. It makes me reflect the societal structure that we lived in. We followed Tarisa and we are inside her head. We see how she feels of being in a sexless marriage and as a mother. The story is set in Singapore.
What I love about this book
🏨 Tarisa's thoughts are so raw and honest. I empathise with her so much. She needs rest and a hug
🏨 The theme of motherhood is done so beautifully and it opens up discussion of mothers are their own individual outside of the family.
🏨 Tarisa's burn out and exhausted is written so well and I feel her exhaustion though the page
🏨 It discusses about being an immigrant in the United States
🏨 The discussion of third culture comes up in this book. It discusses a sense of belonging from both Tarisa and Chris. I see where both the characters are coming from and it does reflect real social dynamic
🏨 I love when Tarisa goes out to dance class for her own quality time, she deserves it.
🏨 The format of the book adds so much impact into the story. It makes it unique
Overall, I had a great time reading this book. I cannot wait for what Thammika Songkaeo writes next!
December 3, 2025
I have mixed feelings about this one.
I spent a lot of time battling with my feelings about the protagonist, who is a tired mother and frustrated wife. I did not find her very likeable in most of the story, and then after some thought and towards the end I realised she is not written to be likeable. She is written to honestly represent what it feels like to be stretched and stressed and neglected. None of us are likeable when in that state.
I am not a mother, but I would say I am a caregiver of mothers, as a sister and as a daughter, and because of this, I could very clearly see their experiences in this story: the love/hate relationship towards their children, the need for quiet, the want for children to be empowered, but a the same time, wishing that they weren't so a parent could still have some control, etc. The experience of motherhood is complex, and I think this book does a great job at presenting it.
I also liked the idea of having a space redefine their relationship, I thought that was clever. However, I thought the book could use a little bit more plot development. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we got out of Tarisa's head and into the story of her and Chris as a couple.
I spent a lot of time battling with my feelings about the protagonist, who is a tired mother and frustrated wife. I did not find her very likeable in most of the story, and then after some thought and towards the end I realised she is not written to be likeable. She is written to honestly represent what it feels like to be stretched and stressed and neglected. None of us are likeable when in that state.
I am not a mother, but I would say I am a caregiver of mothers, as a sister and as a daughter, and because of this, I could very clearly see their experiences in this story: the love/hate relationship towards their children, the need for quiet, the want for children to be empowered, but a the same time, wishing that they weren't so a parent could still have some control, etc. The experience of motherhood is complex, and I think this book does a great job at presenting it.
I also liked the idea of having a space redefine their relationship, I thought that was clever. However, I thought the book could use a little bit more plot development. I think I would have enjoyed it more if we got out of Tarisa's head and into the story of her and Chris as a couple.
May 14, 2025
Stamford Hospital is a fast-paced, profoundly personal meditation on motherhood, belonging, and the nature of family obligations and wealth as those themes intertwine with individual aspiration. The questions it grapples with are searing (personal, complicated, and contradictory in a way that will leave even readers far-removed from the characters' circumstances breathing unevenly) and I am still hearing T’s voice rolling around inside my head. This is one of those texts that sparkles on a sentence level and moves with a precision of prose and thought that belies a writer deeply in love with the possibilities and selves embedded in language. Beyond feeling like much of the text was a descriptive painting, I felt gripped by the characters' dialogue and truly enjoyed how seamlessly the novel expanded time. All in all, I highly recommend Stamford Hospital to anyone who has ever aspired to something, achieved it, and then once again felt their goal posts move. Songakeo's debut is not to be missed.
September 21, 2025
STAMFORD HOSPITAL is an unusual and provocative novel about marriage and motherhood set in Singapore. It is narrated by Tarisa, a Harvard-educated third culture Thai who is used to living in the US where strangers chat, and women are encouraged to be ambitious. She and her husband Chris move to Singapore, which Tarisa, an aspiring academic, expects to be a temporary relocation. However, he declares that they are going to stay in Singapore, where career options for a trailing spouse are limited, because, as an Asian male, he feels emasculated in the United States. Worse, their marriage has become sexless and although she loves her daughter, she finds staying at home with her all day stultifying. Having seen how some helpers treat their charges, she doesn’t want to outsource childcare. She finally gets a break from playing Barbies through hospitalizing her daughter, even though she’s not all that sick. Although the action takes place over only two days, a variety of weighty issues are covered. I will be thinking about this book for a long time. This is a bold and engaging debut.
October 30, 2025
It's an experience going through this book while observing parallels with other mothers in my life. My whole outlook on this book might be different entirely if I were a mother, but as of right now I can only find this as realistic—the hidden side of becoming a mother no one talks much about.
It's the intrusive thoughts, the resentment, the comparisons, and the overall frustration. Not just about her child, but also her husband. Her marriage and home life. Her sexual relationship. It's finding a reprieve where you shouldn't, logically. Hoping for something when you know you should hope for otherwise.
It's raw, dark, and emotional. And I hate that this actually exists. But I love that it brings it to attention.
It's the intrusive thoughts, the resentment, the comparisons, and the overall frustration. Not just about her child, but also her husband. Her marriage and home life. Her sexual relationship. It's finding a reprieve where you shouldn't, logically. Hoping for something when you know you should hope for otherwise.
It's raw, dark, and emotional. And I hate that this actually exists. But I love that it brings it to attention.
January 1, 2026
This book lulls you into the depths in the minds of motherhood, wife, and also well educated individual finding space for herself in a modern world. Despite being well-off in terms of living conditions and quality of life, the protagonist sounds stuck in a suffocated headspace as those her current state of affairs is stuck in absolute finality. Roving between caring for her child and not hating the child, balancing her desires and wants to be reciprocated from her partner, and the big question about her self-worth and the work that she is able to engage with based on her merits. One in which I believe mothers and others can relate to.
August 26, 2025
This novel asks big questions about motherhood, marriage and modern womanhood alike. A mother who doesn't feel like she thinks she ought to; a marriage that is challenged by the impossibility of physical intimacy; a woman who is divided about pursuing her own dreams and preserving the unity of her family. The questions that Songkaeo raises here have no easy answers, but she pursues them with candor and courage. Stamford Hospital is a compelling read and one that's likely to stay with you long after reading.
November 17, 2025
Absolutely devoured this. Thammika Songkaeo writes about parenthood in Singapore with deliberate deftness, choosing when to be crudely consuming, and when to be coldly critical.
The language is astute and accessible, but never compromising. Though it is ostensibly about an expatriate mother, we get to know the protagonist Tarisa as a complex, intelligent, accomplished person who still struggles with familiar insecurities.
Songkaeo pours all her keen observations about Singapore’s many idiosyncrasies, making this fictionalised memoir an engaging read from beginning to end.
The language is astute and accessible, but never compromising. Though it is ostensibly about an expatriate mother, we get to know the protagonist Tarisa as a complex, intelligent, accomplished person who still struggles with familiar insecurities.
Songkaeo pours all her keen observations about Singapore’s many idiosyncrasies, making this fictionalised memoir an engaging read from beginning to end.
June 6, 2025
It evokes intense feelings, beginning with a very thick emotional heaviness but finishing with hope and lightness. She gives words to feelings and thoughts you have as an exhausted default parent as well she expresses the frustration you might get from being a trailing spouse who is “forced” to put pause in a professional career. I thought it was brilliant, not your typical reading about an expat in SG 👌🏼
December 16, 2025
a generous book that does not concern itself with 'a lot' and stands firm on its exploration of 'the little'. i deeply appreciate thammika's depictions of introspection and the duality of a life lives outside and one lived within.
an important piece of singapore literature: important precisely because it is not written by a "local"
an important piece of singapore literature: important precisely because it is not written by a "local"
May 14, 2025
A literary and deep exploration into an expat mother's trapped and tortured psyche. In the Crazy Rich Asians country of Singapore, what happens when a wife unwillingly (and perhaps begrudgingly) becomes a mother? This feminist story is beautifully told through gentle but powerful exposition.
June 9, 2025
When I read the book, I found myself quietly enraged, and at the same time, deeply empathetic. Loved the way Thammika conveyed the marriage, the angst of motherhood and the many demands of one's body.
May 22, 2025
A gripping story that will resonate with many. I found it so compelling I couldn’t put it down. It is beautifully and so sensitively written it will bring you to tears. Highly recommended.
June 4, 2025
A compelling portrait of a woman true to her deepest desires, contrary to what she is expected to want. Honest, engaging, unapologetic.
May 14, 2025
This book to me is a quiet, aching exploration of isolation and the complexities of motherhood. It captures the unsettling loneliness that can creep into even the most familiar corners of domestic life — a love-hate dance with a child who is both your greatest joy and deepest frustration, the silent erosion of intimacy in a marriage that has grown sexless.
In the sterile halls of the hospital, Tarisa reflects on the double standards that define her world, where a woman’s ambition is forever shadowed by the assumption that she is, at her core, a baby making machine — less dedicated than male colleagues, less serious, forever torn between work and family.
It is a brutally honest reflection on the quiet sacrifices women make, the silent wars they wage, and the lives they might have led if they had been seen as more than their roles.
In the sterile halls of the hospital, Tarisa reflects on the double standards that define her world, where a woman’s ambition is forever shadowed by the assumption that she is, at her core, a baby making machine — less dedicated than male colleagues, less serious, forever torn between work and family.
It is a brutally honest reflection on the quiet sacrifices women make, the silent wars they wage, and the lives they might have led if they had been seen as more than their roles.
December 29, 2025
I’m reading some of these 5 star reviews and wondering if we read the same book.
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