The Ash House

The Tjoa ash house originally intended for ancestral tablets has stood at the top of Kota Cahaya's exclusive Green Hill for a century. Now, it is all drooping lintels and sagging roof; a haunted house with a haunted heir in it-Arno Tjoa, a Barbie-doll fixated cripple whom Sister Mary Michael, the clairvoyant nun, has been sent to set free. Arno believes that Bing Fa-the fascinating spirit of a pipa-diva trapped in a ghost marriage to his grandfather-is the key to solving the misfortunes plaguing the house. All will be well with Girl, the comatose maid he is obsessed with, Irene Tjoa his controlling aunt, and the Tjoa fortunes if Bing Fa is released from her doll-house prison. However, as the family's skeletons are unearthed, the nun realizes it is not in her power to save everyone or everything. Who must be sacrificed? What must be left to turn to dust? Set in a 21st century Southeast Asian port city where spirits still linger, The Ash House weaves between the visible and invisible to tell the story of an overseas-Chinese merchant family haunted by the legacy of love gone wrong, with an ending both unexpected and heartbreaking.

Audrey Chin is a Southeast Asian writer whose work explores the intersections between gender, faith and culture. Her essays, short stories, novels and contemplative verses have been published in Singapore, India, the UK and the US. She has been shortlisted thrice for the Singapore Literature Prize and is a Fellow of the 2017 International Writers Program in Iowa.