What do you think?
Rate this book
Names Have Been Changed
Not yet published
Expected 23 Jun 26After ten years on the run around the world, Ophir—not her real name—comes clean in a confessional podcast about her life as a fugitive, charming countless fans even as she risks her freedom.
Ophir’s tale begins in Singapore, where a petty crime spins out of control, estranging her from home and family. Resorting to false identities and forged passports (being mixed-race helps), she crisscrosses the globe from a Paris-themed hostess bar in Tokyo, to a bustling Chinese restaurant in London, to a snowbound mountain town in Colorado and beyond.
Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Ophir is funny, prickly, tough, and vulnerable, entrancing her listeners with an irresistible, no-holds-barred recounting of not only her crimes (plural) but also her deepest secrets and regrets. Even as she moves seamlessly across class lines and continents, she grapples with the shock of relentless dislocation, a painful reexamination of identity, and a deep yearning for home. She tries to find comfort in new lovers and ill-gotten luxury goods, but she can’t help attracting trouble, and she soon faces an unexpected, high-stakes choice that could change her fate forever.
Names Have Been Changed is a stylish, fast-paced debut novel that reveals the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Filled with danger and twists, it’s ultimately a story about immigration and belonging—one unlike any you’ve seen before.
Ophir’s tale begins in Singapore, where a petty crime spins out of control, estranging her from home and family. Resorting to false identities and forged passports (being mixed-race helps), she crisscrosses the globe from a Paris-themed hostess bar in Tokyo, to a bustling Chinese restaurant in London, to a snowbound mountain town in Colorado and beyond.
Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Ophir is funny, prickly, tough, and vulnerable, entrancing her listeners with an irresistible, no-holds-barred recounting of not only her crimes (plural) but also her deepest secrets and regrets. Even as she moves seamlessly across class lines and continents, she grapples with the shock of relentless dislocation, a painful reexamination of identity, and a deep yearning for home. She tries to find comfort in new lovers and ill-gotten luxury goods, but she can’t help attracting trouble, and she soon faces an unexpected, high-stakes choice that could change her fate forever.
Names Have Been Changed is a stylish, fast-paced debut novel that reveals the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Filled with danger and twists, it’s ultimately a story about immigration and belonging—one unlike any you’ve seen before.
272 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication June 23, 2026
8 people want to read
About the author
Yu-Mei Balasingamchow
24 books40 followersYu-Mei Balasingamchow is the author of a novel, Names Have Been Changed (2026), co-author of a nonfiction book, Singapore: A Biography (2009, with Mark R. Frost), and co-editor of a literary collection, In Transit: An Anthology from Singapore on Airports and Air Travel (2016, with Zhang Ruihe). Her short fiction has been shortlisted for the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize, selected for the Best New Singaporean Short Stories anthology series, and received a Pushcart Prize special mention.
She was born in Singapore and is currently based in Boston, where she worked as a bookseller at Papercuts Bookshop and now teaches writing workshops at GrubStreet. She was a 2015 honorary fellow in writing at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and a 2017 national writer-in-residence at Nanyang Technological University. She holds a MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University, and has received grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Sewanee Writers Conference and National Arts Council of Singapore.
She was born in Singapore and is currently based in Boston, where she worked as a bookseller at Papercuts Bookshop and now teaches writing workshops at GrubStreet. She was a 2015 honorary fellow in writing at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and a 2017 national writer-in-residence at Nanyang Technological University. She holds a MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University, and has received grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Sewanee Writers Conference and National Arts Council of Singapore.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
No one has reviewed this book yet.