All Our Brave, Earthly Scars is now available in bookstores!
Winner of the Singapore Book Awards 2021 (Book of the Year & Best Literary Work) – And Softly Go the Crossings
Finalist of the Singapore Book Awards 2019 (Best Literary Work) – Trafalgar Sunrise
Winner of the Singapore Literature Prize 2016 (Non-Fiction) – The Sound of SCH
“Danielle Lim shows her mastery of craft in her second novel: Layered storytelling spanning decades, and prose that cuts the air with its sheer poetry. Magnificent and worth re-reading!”
Felix Cheong, author of Sprawl: A Graphic Novel
“With writing that is breathtakingly moving, Danielle Lim weaves a gut-wrenching story of characters drawn to each other by fierce loves but pulled apart by walls created by their parents’ generation. Against a backdrop of real historical events like the Bukit Ho Swee fire that swept through Singapore and the 2002 Bali bombing, it is a drama of intense emotions that left me reeling at times. Yet by the end, the spirit triumphs, and there is hope for the future, even if it is tinged by past sorrows and upheavals.”
Tara Dhar Hasnain, literary editor and lecturer
These stories will make you take a second look at the nondescript person you meet on the street, bus or train… suddenly you will be drawn into fortunes, heartaches, dilemmas, the world of the Other that you would hardly have given a thought to ordinarily, being engrossed in your own. While Danielle Lim’s fiction weaves the inner connections of mind, heart and environment in her characters, recognition takes us by surprise, that we have met them before in family, friends, acquaintances, and indeed, in ourselves. We realize how much we have in common with people we think are so different from us, but also that the same minutiae of life add up to individuated stories. And within those stories, the same processing goes on, to grasp meaning, connections, clarity about what is going on. In the subtle detailing of experiences unremarkably remarkable we are given insights into what makes us human and discover a larger empathy with other human beings, so present yet invisible, who make up our lives. And Softly Go the Crossings is aptly named – each story, so inwardly narrated, affords us a way into the Other, and a space in which to grow a little. – Anne Lee Tzu Pheng, award-winning poet and Singapore Cultural Medallion recipient
“A touching and heartfelt book, well written and illuminating about both the Sars epidemic and long ago leprosy. The characters come alive and stay with the reader when the book is finished. ”
– Meira Chand, author of A Different Sky
“Danielle has written a riveting story of human resilience and the gift of human kindness. She has captured with great tenderness and sensitivity the interwoven lives of two teenage survivors of Trafalgar Home. This is a wonderful book which I really enjoyed.”
– Prof Lee Seng Teik, Emeritus Consultant & surgeon
“A very moving story that gives a human touch to the struggle against infectious diseases. I could imagine scenes from Trafalgar Home, from hospitals and from old times in Singapore. A very good book!”
– A/Prof Maciej Piotr Chlebicki, Senior Consultant in infectious diseases
“An unflinching memoir of how mental illness rips the heart out of a family. It is as brutally honest as it is compassionate. Only a handful of books have moved me to tears. The Sound of SCH is one of them.”
– Felix Cheong, Chief Judge for Singapore Literature Prize (Non-Fiction) 2016
“Danielle Lim is that rare thing, a true talent. In this slim but masterful book, her spare and beautiful writing encompasses without sentimentality the grief and guilt of dealing with mental illness. In the process she reaffirms not only our own humanity but shows that whatever our trials, life is still worth living.”
– Meira Chand, author of A Different Sky
