SIX DEGREES OF EXPATRIATION: UNCOVERING THE LIVES OF EXPATS IN SINGAPORE

MAIDA PINEDA, MARSHALL CAVENDISH EDITIONS, US$15.99great read

Six Degrees of Expatriation is part autobiography and part series of short stories on expatriates in Singapore. Author and blogger Maida Pineda, herself an expatriate, first arrived in Singapore in 2007. Being a food and travel writer, she met other expatriates from all walks of life. The 16 people featured in her book hail from America to Italy, India to New Zealand.

It might be Pineda’s belief in the maxim “everybody has a story to tell” that brings out the most extraordinary of stories in the most ordinary of people. Her subjects include a photographer, meditation teacher and an art director.

The anecdotes are pure and straight from the heart. Some memories contain a tinge of longing. It is the longing to relive the past; the longing for a simpler life; the longing for home. Other recollections embrace hope.

The bite-sized chapters, each promising a new personal experience, proved a delightful read on my short train rides in Hongkong. A Father’s Love is a particularly heart-wrenching story about Rom who left his family in the Philippines in search of a better life. Honestly told, his story of true grit earned my admiration.

The book is able to see one through homesickness and troubled times. The stories within remind us that as the tough gets going, they hopefully pick up gold nuggets of insight. Still, there is no rainbow at the end of the yellow-brick road. As Pineda wrote in one of her chapters, even when you land in one place, “the journey never ends”.

Jarrel Tan