My Love is Blind

“Perhaps I will write about my own life as a blind person,” Choon Guan said. “I’ll entitle it My Love is Blind. The word blind will embrace your name, Lin.” His big eyes widened and lit up, sparkling and full of tenderness. His lips moved in a soundless whisper: “My Love is Lin.”

Tan Guan Heng lost his sight at the age of 28. In his first novel, he paints a nostalgic picture of Singapore on the brink of independence. With biting honesty and ironic humour, this novel brings to life the world of the blind and their sighted helpers.

More than twenty years after its first publication in 1995, My Love is Blind has retained its enduring appeal as one of Singapore’s most extraordinary and memorable novels. Asiapac Books is pleased to launch a special edition of this groundbreaking novel, updated with an epilogue and a new foreword by Dr. Tommy Koh, and an afterword by literary critic, Gwee Li Sui.

An excerpt from the afterword: “…My Love is Blind is a deeply rational book because the writing involves distinct technical questions about constructing reality. It explains a quality of composure where, even at his lowest, Choon Guan entertains neither despair nor death. Ultimately, we must see the heart of this work as a great belief in life, what can hold together and transform all the fragments of self.”