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Shantih Shantih Shantih
An art student chances upon a former fling at Punggol MRT station. A reporter lies awake at four in the morning, chronically unable to sleep. Two men lie in bed, watching YouTube videos of hail falling in Singapore, while a sugar baby trawls through Google Maps, exploring the homes and neighbourhoods of her former clients.
In this novella by Daryl Qilin Yam, a dozen lonely individuals in Singapore witness a freakish instance of snowfall, lasting for exactly four minutes and twenty-six seconds. Shantih Shantih Shantih is a heady mix of desire and dauntlessness that revels in its interconnections, pulling together a community that is at once together and apart.
“I loved Shantih Shantih Shantih’s combination of beautifully precise language with the contemplative, yearning, dreamy looseness of that hinterland time between late night and early morning. In twelve unassumingly luminous vignettes, we’re given snapshots of a small group of sleepless people around Singapore, whose lives just happen to intersect and resonate at the moment of the strange almost-miracle of a few minutes of snowfall, just after half-past four in the morning. I found myself captivated by the book’s particular blend of melancholy, tenderness and idealism, and also found myself reminded – in the absolute best of ways – of one of my all-time favourite films, Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth.”
– Naomi Ishiguro, author of Escape Routes and Common Ground
In this novella by Daryl Qilin Yam, a dozen lonely individuals in Singapore witness a freakish instance of snowfall, lasting for exactly four minutes and twenty-six seconds. Shantih Shantih Shantih is a heady mix of desire and dauntlessness that revels in its interconnections, pulling together a community that is at once together and apart.
“I loved Shantih Shantih Shantih’s combination of beautifully precise language with the contemplative, yearning, dreamy looseness of that hinterland time between late night and early morning. In twelve unassumingly luminous vignettes, we’re given snapshots of a small group of sleepless people around Singapore, whose lives just happen to intersect and resonate at the moment of the strange almost-miracle of a few minutes of snowfall, just after half-past four in the morning. I found myself captivated by the book’s particular blend of melancholy, tenderness and idealism, and also found myself reminded – in the absolute best of ways – of one of my all-time favourite films, Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth.”
– Naomi Ishiguro, author of Escape Routes and Common Ground
124 pages
Published October 1, 2021
3 people are currently reading
161 people want to read
About the author
Daryl Qilin Yam
18 books43 followersDaryl Qilin Yam (b. 1991) is a writer, editor and arts organiser from Singapore. Shortlisted for the Singapore Literature Prize and nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award, he is the author of two novels, a novella and the bestselling short story collection Be Your Own Bae (2024). He co-founded the literary charity Sing Lit Station, where he presently serves as the managing editor of its publishing arm AFTERIMAGE.
His writing has appeared in periodicals and publications such as the Berlin Quarterly, the Sewanee Review, The Straits Times and The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singapore Short Stories anthology series. His first novel, Kappa Quartet (2016), was selected by The Business Times as one of the best novels of the year, and was described by QLRS as “[breaking] new ground in Singaporean writing… an immensely sympathetic and humane exploration of our existential condition.”
His writing has appeared in periodicals and publications such as the Berlin Quarterly, the Sewanee Review, The Straits Times and The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singapore Short Stories anthology series. His first novel, Kappa Quartet (2016), was selected by The Business Times as one of the best novels of the year, and was described by QLRS as “[breaking] new ground in Singaporean writing… an immensely sympathetic and humane exploration of our existential condition.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
October 20, 2021
4.5⭐
"You will see that you have been drifting your whole life, only to find yourself caught in the orbit of something immense and wonderful, and the gravity of it makes sense, feels solid, is right."
Daryl Yam's collection of 12 vignettes are like a box of truffles. Each one delicious and distinct but also with the one transversing ingredient - chocolate. In this case, it is the absolutely incongruous occurence of snow in Singapore for precisely 4 minutes and 26 seconds at 4.45am. Each bite of a story features a different person, a small insight into their lives. While the characters are interconnected, as Yam says in the introduction, you can read each story by itself.
Shantih is a sanskrit word meaning peace or inner peace. This is something most people would associate with watching show fall. This is something each character finds to varying degrees on this night or that the experience of seeing snow where it is least likely to happen confers on them.
I remember my mum telling me as a child that it had hailed in Singapore when she was young, something I can't find a reference to now. However, it has actually hailed a few times this century. Whereas hail is more tumultuous and possibly damaging, snow is usually beautiful. Even a blizzard has a sense of cleansing and blurring hardness.
This novella length book is easily consumed in one sitting and will leave you with a lovely after taste.
"You will see that you have been drifting your whole life, only to find yourself caught in the orbit of something immense and wonderful, and the gravity of it makes sense, feels solid, is right."
Daryl Yam's collection of 12 vignettes are like a box of truffles. Each one delicious and distinct but also with the one transversing ingredient - chocolate. In this case, it is the absolutely incongruous occurence of snow in Singapore for precisely 4 minutes and 26 seconds at 4.45am. Each bite of a story features a different person, a small insight into their lives. While the characters are interconnected, as Yam says in the introduction, you can read each story by itself.
Shantih is a sanskrit word meaning peace or inner peace. This is something most people would associate with watching show fall. This is something each character finds to varying degrees on this night or that the experience of seeing snow where it is least likely to happen confers on them.
I remember my mum telling me as a child that it had hailed in Singapore when she was young, something I can't find a reference to now. However, it has actually hailed a few times this century. Whereas hail is more tumultuous and possibly damaging, snow is usually beautiful. Even a blizzard has a sense of cleansing and blurring hardness.
This novella length book is easily consumed in one sitting and will leave you with a lovely after taste.
August 29, 2021
In this novella by Daryl Qilin Yam, a dozen lonely individuals in Singapore witness a freakish instance of snowfall, lasting for exactly four minutes and twenty-six seconds. Daryl’s writing has got me hooked in such a magical realism and emotional connection to the story and characters. In these 12 different stories, the order of the chapter doesn't matter, whatever story a reader starts of first, the story has a sense of connection to one another. In each story of different characters, it feels like you are watching them from the window of the house to what they went through
Thank you @booksactually for this beautiful e-reader copy! Get your copy of Shantih Shantih Shantih by Daryl Qilin Yam at www.booksactuallyshop.com!
Thank you @booksactually for this beautiful e-reader copy! Get your copy of Shantih Shantih Shantih by Daryl Qilin Yam at www.booksactuallyshop.com!
August 12, 2025
powerful, elegaic, moving. does incredible things with the second person, with the short story, with the vignette—force and life and the feeling of singapore.
a meandering collection not in the sense of a river but instead a fluttering, torrential, ephemeral snowfall. every story touches the next, or the one after that, or so on—one a dialogue, one a stream of consciousness, one a series of letters. spread across singapore, taxi drivers, drag queens, the rich and the homeless and the migrant and the student mix and intermingle, distinct and lonely and intersecting in oblique, shadowed ways; lights on at the same time at quarter to five in the morning. sonder collapsed into a miraculous bundle.
8
a meandering collection not in the sense of a river but instead a fluttering, torrential, ephemeral snowfall. every story touches the next, or the one after that, or so on—one a dialogue, one a stream of consciousness, one a series of letters. spread across singapore, taxi drivers, drag queens, the rich and the homeless and the migrant and the student mix and intermingle, distinct and lonely and intersecting in oblique, shadowed ways; lights on at the same time at quarter to five in the morning. sonder collapsed into a miraculous bundle.
8
March 21, 2025
daryl's voice is always a beautiful dream of intertwined singaporeans
November 27, 2024
sublime like the first snowfall that falls in the middle of the night
(my attention span is at an all time low so the short vignettes were perfect and i actually was able to concentrate on this book for long enough to finish it in one afternoon. lovely.)
(my attention span is at an all time low so the short vignettes were perfect and i actually was able to concentrate on this book for long enough to finish it in one afternoon. lovely.)
June 10, 2023
pretty, delicate yet gritty and reflective in equal and perfectly balanced measure
February 17, 2024
my only regret was not being able to read this all in one sitting because i fell sick literally as i started on it :(
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September 12, 2021Taking its title from T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (there is a humorous bit where Arman, a poet and foreign worker, wonders why Eliot spells Shanti as “Shantih”), Shantih Shantih Shantih is Daryl Yam’s third publication and first novella.
In Shantih Shantih Shantih, Daryl Yam imagines a Singapore that experiences, without explanation, a bout of snow. If the snow, a phenomenon tying together twelve disparate human experiences, is described by the writer figure (whom I imagine is a stand-in for Daryl Yam) in the first section as “supernatural”, it is supernatural not in a spectral sense, but supernatural in an offering-transcendence senes, where each determined character plodding through the tedium of life is invigorated by this magical event.
I do love the assorted cast of characters who populate this novella, who each experience the snow in a very different way. Taken together, these viewpoints form a lovely coherence of connection and meaning. Some characters appear lonely or withdrawn (I think of the wife of a man who is having an affair, or of Marilyn Mendoza, a domestic helper and artist who writes a manifesto on art), but the very structure of the novella repudiates such a view. The sections, Yam stresses, can be read in any order. Shantih Shantih Shantih offers a non-hierarchical vision of human relationships which exist without a centre, instead of relationships as forming a web or plane, endlessly expansive and accommodating. Which is very lovely, I think!
In Shantih Shantih Shantih, Daryl Yam imagines a Singapore that experiences, without explanation, a bout of snow. If the snow, a phenomenon tying together twelve disparate human experiences, is described by the writer figure (whom I imagine is a stand-in for Daryl Yam) in the first section as “supernatural”, it is supernatural not in a spectral sense, but supernatural in an offering-transcendence senes, where each determined character plodding through the tedium of life is invigorated by this magical event.
I do love the assorted cast of characters who populate this novella, who each experience the snow in a very different way. Taken together, these viewpoints form a lovely coherence of connection and meaning. Some characters appear lonely or withdrawn (I think of the wife of a man who is having an affair, or of Marilyn Mendoza, a domestic helper and artist who writes a manifesto on art), but the very structure of the novella repudiates such a view. The sections, Yam stresses, can be read in any order. Shantih Shantih Shantih offers a non-hierarchical vision of human relationships which exist without a centre, instead of relationships as forming a web or plane, endlessly expansive and accommodating. Which is very lovely, I think!
September 15, 2021
“If there is any good I can do in the world, I want to be able to look at the lives of these other people and present it to those who are curious, just curious, to see the many things and places that pertain to keep them, and house them, and provide shelter for them.”
In just four minutes and twenty-six seconds of bizarre snowfall in Singapore, ordinary everyday moments in the lives of 12 individuals are transformed into extraordinary encounters connecting them to one another.
Reading these vignettes meant listening to the voices at the periphery of Singapore's community, voices that are seldom heard and often misunderstood. 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘩 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘩 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘩 is both necessarily honest and quintessentially Singaporean.
Yam’s novella, as the title implies, is an invocation of peace and comfort as the pieces of a fragmented community are pulled together into a whole. It is also reflection and recognition that we need each other more than we think, and that our thoughts and actions can change the lives of strangers more than we know.
In just four minutes and twenty-six seconds of bizarre snowfall in Singapore, ordinary everyday moments in the lives of 12 individuals are transformed into extraordinary encounters connecting them to one another.
Reading these vignettes meant listening to the voices at the periphery of Singapore's community, voices that are seldom heard and often misunderstood. 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘩 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘩 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘩 is both necessarily honest and quintessentially Singaporean.
Yam’s novella, as the title implies, is an invocation of peace and comfort as the pieces of a fragmented community are pulled together into a whole. It is also reflection and recognition that we need each other more than we think, and that our thoughts and actions can change the lives of strangers more than we know.
December 28, 2021
First of all, I’d like to thank BooksActually for sending this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Going into this book, I had no idea about the writing style or the format of the book, except for the synopsis which is Singapore experienced snow and there were some witnesses to the event. I was also intrigued when the synopsis mentions about the life of the lonely Singaporeans, hence I accepted the review request.
It’s been a while since I read books with multiple POV. For example, this book starts off with first person point of view (POV) then in the next chapter it’s second person POV. At times, I could say I was struggling with the characters and the different stories that should all connected through the falling of the snow. I think the best word to describe my whole experience with this book is that it’s quirky and different. I appreciate that the author brings me to visit the different life path of the Singaporeans and I somewhat have a clearer vision to their life and experiences. But like I said, there’s something missing or it’s just that the writing style is not meant for me entirely.
Luckily, as I read this book, I do realise the connection between the characters and it was indeed an amazing journey going into the story with their perspective and life stories. This book is honest and it invites the readers to discuss openly about the reality of life. The truth is Singapore consists of a very diverse community, others like migrants also exists and their stories and darkest secrets matter too.
However, after I finished reading that last page, I found out this book won’t a memorable one. The stories aren’t strong enough to be unforgettable. It is a mundane life story about everyone, maybe everyone has their dark secrets and their guilty pleasure but the book ends at a monotonous tone for me. I could be missing things but I wasn’t surprised that much or attracted strongly to certain parts of the book. Yes, maybe I can remember one or two characters but that could be just it.
Overall, if you’re looking for something fresh and quirky, would surely recommend you Shantih Shantih Shantih but I think it’s better to lower your expectation going into this book. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it even more.
It’s been a while since I read books with multiple POV. For example, this book starts off with first person point of view (POV) then in the next chapter it’s second person POV. At times, I could say I was struggling with the characters and the different stories that should all connected through the falling of the snow. I think the best word to describe my whole experience with this book is that it’s quirky and different. I appreciate that the author brings me to visit the different life path of the Singaporeans and I somewhat have a clearer vision to their life and experiences. But like I said, there’s something missing or it’s just that the writing style is not meant for me entirely.
Luckily, as I read this book, I do realise the connection between the characters and it was indeed an amazing journey going into the story with their perspective and life stories. This book is honest and it invites the readers to discuss openly about the reality of life. The truth is Singapore consists of a very diverse community, others like migrants also exists and their stories and darkest secrets matter too.
However, after I finished reading that last page, I found out this book won’t a memorable one. The stories aren’t strong enough to be unforgettable. It is a mundane life story about everyone, maybe everyone has their dark secrets and their guilty pleasure but the book ends at a monotonous tone for me. I could be missing things but I wasn’t surprised that much or attracted strongly to certain parts of the book. Yes, maybe I can remember one or two characters but that could be just it.
Overall, if you’re looking for something fresh and quirky, would surely recommend you Shantih Shantih Shantih but I think it’s better to lower your expectation going into this book. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it even more.
October 8, 2022
this is a novella consisting 12 separate vignettes, each vignette follows an individual in Singapore as they witness a peculiar instance of snowfall, that lasts precisely 4 minutes and 26 seconds at 4.45 am on an August morning. All 12 POVs are interconnected in one way or another, where each one of them crosses paths with another person throughout the night of the snowfall, and it's just really beautiful how DQY manages to weave all 12 fragmented vignettes into an interconnected novella.
As always, DQY's writing in "Shantih Shantih Shantih" is absolutely beautiful. His descriptions just feel so lyrical and satisfying to read. "Shanti" stands for peace in Sanskrit, and is "traditionally uttered three times." "For every time you say the word 'shanti', you clear away all that is bad and evil from the external, the internal and the divine."
I loved how DQY included people of different races, ages, nationalities, upbringing etc. given Singapore's diverse demographic. We have (possibly the author himself?), his partner, a reporter, a taxi driver, a sugar baby, a sugar daddy, his wife, an art student, her hookup back in the States during Uni, a migrant worker, a domestic helper, a drag queen. These 12 individuals are somehow connected one way or another, either through events, familial relations, or affairs.
This novella is incredibly short and SHOULD definitely be read in a single sitting, as it'll be easier to grasp the connections between all 12 stories. While DQY says in the introduction that the stories can be read in any order, I believe the way he specifically ordered them made the most sense.
I do wish we got to have the conclusion for some of the stories, although I know that isn't the point of the story, and it's only meant to detail a fragment of these sleepless individuals' life. And thus, I'm pleasantly satisfied with this novella! The last book to read from DQY is "Kappa Quartet", and I should probably get to it soon!
As always, DQY's writing in "Shantih Shantih Shantih" is absolutely beautiful. His descriptions just feel so lyrical and satisfying to read. "Shanti" stands for peace in Sanskrit, and is "traditionally uttered three times." "For every time you say the word 'shanti', you clear away all that is bad and evil from the external, the internal and the divine."
I loved how DQY included people of different races, ages, nationalities, upbringing etc. given Singapore's diverse demographic. We have (possibly the author himself?), his partner, a reporter, a taxi driver, a sugar baby, a sugar daddy, his wife, an art student, her hookup back in the States during Uni, a migrant worker, a domestic helper, a drag queen. These 12 individuals are somehow connected one way or another, either through events, familial relations, or affairs.
This novella is incredibly short and SHOULD definitely be read in a single sitting, as it'll be easier to grasp the connections between all 12 stories. While DQY says in the introduction that the stories can be read in any order, I believe the way he specifically ordered them made the most sense.
I do wish we got to have the conclusion for some of the stories, although I know that isn't the point of the story, and it's only meant to detail a fragment of these sleepless individuals' life. And thus, I'm pleasantly satisfied with this novella! The last book to read from DQY is "Kappa Quartet", and I should probably get to it soon!
May 16, 2023
Some books just have a way of reeling you in. This is one of them. Structured in the form of 12 fragmented perspectives (12 lovely people who were loosely connected and witnessed an instance of snowfall in Singapore), my initial thought was it would come across as disjointed and abrupt. I expected to read with a sense of disinterest because how much can you develop in a few short pages? I stand corrected.
Daryl Yam has such a way with words. Written so beautifully, with each little moment flowing so gently into the other, every story leaves you feeling slightly whimsical, slightly pained, hopeful yet lost, and somehow, very invested. I wish there was more to each character, I wanted to know what happened to them! But part of the magical experience from this book came from the sense of knowing everything was transient. These penned moments were precious because they were fleeting — these were all we had of these people.
It mirrors life: You take for granted too much of a good thing, and reminisce fondly people/things that have already gone. Anyway, I highly highly recommend this book and will be revisiting it often for inspiration!
Daryl Yam has such a way with words. Written so beautifully, with each little moment flowing so gently into the other, every story leaves you feeling slightly whimsical, slightly pained, hopeful yet lost, and somehow, very invested. I wish there was more to each character, I wanted to know what happened to them! But part of the magical experience from this book came from the sense of knowing everything was transient. These penned moments were precious because they were fleeting — these were all we had of these people.
It mirrors life: You take for granted too much of a good thing, and reminisce fondly people/things that have already gone. Anyway, I highly highly recommend this book and will be revisiting it often for inspiration!
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February 22, 2022i love a novella around a single concept, and finding the trails from one story to a next/one character to the next was beautiful, as was the prose. you get a strong sense of singapore in the text–notably a quiet, nighttime version of the place, which is rare. incredibly soothing to read, even through the melancholia of some of the short stories.
maybe i wanted a little more from the snow in this novella? seems to me that putting snow in the context of singapore has greater ecological/symbolic connotations in itself... i understand the resistance to assigning meaning to the snow by the author, and perhaps i need to revisit the novella, but it would have been wonderful to see the ramifications - even in the moment - explored more.
maybe i wanted a little more from the snow in this novella? seems to me that putting snow in the context of singapore has greater ecological/symbolic connotations in itself... i understand the resistance to assigning meaning to the snow by the author, and perhaps i need to revisit the novella, but it would have been wonderful to see the ramifications - even in the moment - explored more.
August 4, 2022
Interesting concept bringing together the experiences of various individuals during a moment in time. However I'm puzzled as to why the publisher / author categorised this work as a novella when a plot is noticeably absent. Each chapter can be read independently and has minimal / no impact on other chapters. The snow theme running through each chapter is to some effect insignificant and easily replaceable by other elements. Strictly speaking I wouldn't even label this book as a short story collection. It feels more like a collection of vignettes. I would think it is more advantageous for the publisher / author to re categorise this book in order to avoid setting up readers to measure the book against unfair expectations.
April 22, 2025
4/5
I feel like I need to chart out each story's correlation to one another like that one conspiracy theory guy meme. putting my mild craziness aside, I loveddd this.
Shantih³ is a short but charming read that gave me both laughs and food for thought. the 12 stories were only a few pages long, but held much character in the individual in focus' words and sentiments. although lacking conflict continuation due to the stories' shortness (would've loved to see ones like the sugar baby and migrant worker come full circle, though I suppose the withdrawal from such is intentional), each are intertwined by the 4-minute long snowfall. the photograph of 2 donning blue with their backs to the camera. the cruise ship partying it up, or so it seems.
in a book whose title chants for peace, we can openly interpret (or so only hope) that those in each short story — no matter how beautifully written — receives exactly that.
I feel like I need to chart out each story's correlation to one another like that one conspiracy theory guy meme. putting my mild craziness aside, I loveddd this.
Shantih³ is a short but charming read that gave me both laughs and food for thought. the 12 stories were only a few pages long, but held much character in the individual in focus' words and sentiments. although lacking conflict continuation due to the stories' shortness (would've loved to see ones like the sugar baby and migrant worker come full circle, though I suppose the withdrawal from such is intentional), each are intertwined by the 4-minute long snowfall. the photograph of 2 donning blue with their backs to the camera. the cruise ship partying it up, or so it seems.
in a book whose title chants for peace, we can openly interpret (or so only hope) that those in each short story — no matter how beautifully written — receives exactly that.
December 4, 2021
A short novella by a local writer on a dozen different individuals in Singapore, whose stories are interconnected by their encounter of snow at the wee hours of the day and are but one/two degrees of separation away. For each character that is introduced, a chapter is told from his/her POV - which I enjoyed.
There was repeated mentions of a picture which showed two persons donning blue parkas walking down a path through snowy weather. I assume the picture may have been taken by the author. A nice touch to the story.
There was repeated mentions of a picture which showed two persons donning blue parkas walking down a path through snowy weather. I assume the picture may have been taken by the author. A nice touch to the story.
March 3, 2024
4.25/5
this wasn’t bad it just didn’t really speak to me. the writing is fantastic and super super skilful but i felt so emotionally detached from this book that i find it very hard to score it higher. i think it captured the central idea of loneliness very well, even when the people in this book aren’t alone per se. which makes the internal loneliness even more prominent.
one thing that didn’t sit quite right is that the snow itself is either mentioned right at the end or in passing for most of the perspectives, which was pretty puzzling because i thought the whole point was to explore how different people respond to this anomaly. the only chapter that actually did it properly was maybe the first one. but maybe i’m not Literature enough to understand. also the picture of the two people holding hands may have been a very personal thing to the author because it appeared a fair number of times but it wasn’t elaborated on enough for me to appreciate the significance. so maybe the author put it in to scratch some itch for himself, not the reader. and that’s completely fine with me because art can be made to satisfy the creator without taking technical skill into consideration.
this wasn’t bad it just didn’t really speak to me. the writing is fantastic and super super skilful but i felt so emotionally detached from this book that i find it very hard to score it higher. i think it captured the central idea of loneliness very well, even when the people in this book aren’t alone per se. which makes the internal loneliness even more prominent.
one thing that didn’t sit quite right is that the snow itself is either mentioned right at the end or in passing for most of the perspectives, which was pretty puzzling because i thought the whole point was to explore how different people respond to this anomaly. the only chapter that actually did it properly was maybe the first one. but maybe i’m not Literature enough to understand. also the picture of the two people holding hands may have been a very personal thing to the author because it appeared a fair number of times but it wasn’t elaborated on enough for me to appreciate the significance. so maybe the author put it in to scratch some itch for himself, not the reader. and that’s completely fine with me because art can be made to satisfy the creator without taking technical skill into consideration.
March 22, 2023
Optimal example of what Singlit can and should do. This story brings together many characters and threads. Vivid details plus a beautiful lyrical voice immersed me into this story. It's hard to read books about your own city where you reside currently and yet experience it as if you are learning something new. This book does so much for the heart!
July 18, 2025
A collection of 12 seemingly unrelated short stories (very short! like 4 pages long) that come together quite nicely. The writing was fantastic, and despite the book itself being so short (have I mentioned how short it is already?!) it made me FEEL something. It's only gonna take at most 45min of your life to read this, so I urge all of you to give this a shot! Fantastic work by a local artist.
January 6, 2023
Daryl's words flow naturally and his stories permeate multiple registers of the Singapore's society, all connected via a thin thread of an unnatural phenomenon of snowing, yet so hilariously true of the sentiments of any dweller on this island.
May 9, 2023
alright. just... alright. well-written and pleasant, but forgettable. kind of like a snowflake actually - something well formed you can appreciate for about two seconds before it melts away. he could have done so much more with the snow.
(more coherent than Kappa Quartet, at least)
(more coherent than Kappa Quartet, at least)
May 11, 2025
What a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed each of these stories and they all intertwined nicely. They were all different enough to keep things fresh, but retained much in common, especially Singapore.
I look forward to reading more by this author.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
I look forward to reading more by this author.
https://4201mass.blogspot.com/
September 22, 2021
🚨 Book Review
Shantih Shantih Shantih - Daryl Qilin Yam ❄️ (4/5 ⭐️)
SUMMARY: ✍🏼
A dozen individuals from all walks of life witness a freakish instance of snowfall in Singapore, lasting four minutes and twenty-six seconds. The novella, split into twelve sections, gives us a peek into the lives of people from very different backgrounds, at one specific moment in time. From a reporter to a taxi driver, we are privy to their daily thoughts and occurrences, but also shown how interconnected we all are in this tiny island of Singapore.
MY THOUGHTS: 💭
This is such an exquisite read, with beautifully written prose that was light yet impactful. I breezed through the book but found myself going back to certain pages and quotes because they took hostage in my mind.
As a Singaporean, this really hit home. In the first chapter itself, when we hear discussion about the hail in 2013, I was brought back to the exact time and place I was when that occurred. It made me feel personally connected to the prose, and I could not put this book down.
This was also a great take on shedding light on misunderstood communities in Singapore. We hear the innermost thoughts of a migrant worker who writes letters to his lover back home, a drag queen who experiences discrimination, and I found it brilliant how just delving into their minds can open up my own in so many ways.
Much of this is a light take on different perspectives, and although I wished for more confrontation or conflict, I understood the reason behind the output.
You can read the twelve sections in any order of your choice, which allows for a perfect reread experience and spotting how wonderfully the novella gels together in more ways than one.
January 15, 2022
Beautifully woven
March 28, 2022
Oh this was magic and madness I really liked it
August 5, 2022
The book appears to play to the author's strengths, offering quick glimpses into each character's life. You pass them by yet not quite knowing them.
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September 4, 2022a book as memorable and ephemeral as snow; to be read at a bar on a high stool under a yellow light
December 22, 2022
i enjoyed this a lot. it reminds me of how strangers aren’t really strangers. beautifully written.
August 22, 2025
A nice collection of interwoven stories that radiate melancholy and introspection.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews