Power dynamics of Singapore society

Balli Kaur Jaswal’s latest novel ‘Now You See Us’

Bong Joon-ho’s Academy Award winning South Korean black comedy,  Parasite (2019), brought the unseen elves who ensure our lives run smoothly to the foreground. So it is with Balli Kaur Jaswal’s latest novel,  Now You See Us (HarperCollins), which shines a spotlight on the lives of three very different women, Corazon, Angel and Donita, who are united by their profession as domestic workers in Singapore.

“ Parasite is an incisive exploration of class,” writes Jaswal over email. “It opened up conversations and it was also vigorously entertaining on many levels. There are stories and films out there taking the perspective of marginalised and invisible people. We all love an underdog story and, hopefully, we also see the areas in which we are complicit in certain oppressive structures.”

It is a hard life for Cora, Angel and Donita and sometimes their “Ma’ams” are a trial, but the women (except Donita) keep their heads down and carry on till a death turns everything upside down, dredging up memories of the execution of a Filipino domestic worker accused of killing a child in Singapore.

The case was a pivotal moment for Jaswal as a teenager. “I was struck by how different the truth could be depending on who was telling the story and where the loyalties and stakes were.” There were two narratives, the 38-year-old writes over email. “In Singapore, she was considered guilty and in the Philippines, she was assumed to be innocent.”

Jaswal’s debut novel,  Inheritance (2013), followed by  Sugarbread (2014), are set in Singapore between the late ’60s and the ’90s. Wanting to see how a murder would split loyalties and create conversations in the era of social media, Jaswal chose to set  Now You See Us in the present. “Singapore has changed tremendously in some ways — in terms of wealth and landscape — but unfortunately certain attitudes towards migrant workers haven’t shifted at the same pace.”

According to her, what has changed is access to nuanced and diversified stories and sources, and a capacity for speaking out due to the emergence of social media platforms. “It is an advantage for domestic workers, too. They stay connected to each other and to their families back home. They also have access to important information and conversations that build solidarity during difficult times.”

Jaswal’s earlier books Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows (2017) was set in the U.K., and The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters (2019) in India. This time she returns to Singapore to tell a story without Indians being front and centre.