{"product_id":"the-singapore-grip-9781590171363","title":"The Singapore Grip","description":"\u003cp\u003eSingapore, 1939: life on the eve of World War II just isn't what it used to be for Walter Blackett, head of British Singapore's oldest and most powerful firm. No matter how forcefully the police break one strike, the natives go on strike somewhere else. His daughter keeps entangling herself with the most unsuitable beaus, while her intended match, the son of Blackett's partner, is an idealistic sympathizer with the League of Nations and a vegetarian. Business may be booming--what with the war in Europe, the Allies are desperate for rubber and helpless to resist Blackett's price-fixing and market manipulation--but something is wrong. No one suspects that the world of the British Empire, of fixed boundaries between classes and nations, is about to come to a terrible end.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA love story and a war story, a tragicomic tale of a city under siege and a dying way of life, \u003ci\u003eThe Singapore Grip\u003c\/i\u003e completes the \"Empire Trilogy\" that began with \u003ci\u003eTroubles\u003c\/i\u003e and the Booker prize-winning \u003ci\u003eSiege of Krishnapur\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJ.G.Farrell\u003c\/b\u003e (1935-1979) was born with a caul, long considered a sign of good fortune. Academically and athletically gifted, Farrell grew up in England and Ireland. In 1956, during his first term at Oxford, he suffered what seemed a minor injury on the rugby pitch. Within days, however, he was diagnosed with polio, which nearly killed him and left him permanently weakened. Farrell's early novels, which include \u003ci\u003eThe Lung\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Girl in the Head, \u003c\/i\u003ehave been overshadowed by his Empire Trilogy--\u003ci\u003eTroubles\u003c\/i\u003e, the Booker Prize-winning \u003ci\u003eSiege of Krishnapur, \u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Singapore Grip\u003c\/i\u003e (all three are published by NYRB Classics). In early 1979, Farrell bought a farmhouse in Bantry Bay on the Irish coast. \"I've been trying to write,\" he admitted, \"but there are so many competing interests--the prime one at the moment is fishing off the rocks... . Then a colony of bees has come to live above my back door and I'm thinking of turning them into my feudal retainers.\" On August 11, Farrell was hit by a wave while fishing and was washed out to sea. His body was found a month later. A biography of J.G. Farrell, J\u003ci\u003e.G. Farrell: The Making of a Writer \u003c\/i\u003eby Lavinia Greacen, was published by Bloomsbury in 1999. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eDerek Mahon\u003c\/b\u003e was born in Belfast in 1941, studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and the Sorbonne, and has held journalistic and academic appointments in London and New York. He has received numerous awards, including the \u003ci\u003eIrish Times\u003c\/i\u003e\/Aer Lingus Poetry Prize, the Irish Academy of Letters Award, the Scott Moncrieff and Aristeion translation prizes, and Lannan and Guggenheim fellowships. His Collected Poems were published in 1999 and \u003ci\u003eHarbour Lights\u003c\/i\u003e, a volume of new poetry, was published in 2006.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50873621250322,"sku":"9781590171363","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0fdecb1c-eaa8-4f38-af77-37b559c657e4.jpg?v=1737944594","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-singapore-grip-9781590171363","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}