The Waiting Room

A man seeks resolution when the spirit of his abusive mother calls from the grave. A sex worker finds temporary salvation with a returning Australian tourist professing his love. The afterlife plays host to a vast museum dedicated to jetsam from the living world. In this debut fiction collection, these imagined worlds are set variously in plural Singapores, Southeast Asia and beyond, and illuminate the urgent need to connect even after death.

“Brimming with debris and surreal dreamers, The Waiting Room makes phantasms of its tenderly rendered lives. Choo Yi Feng tells of queer Singapores and their ecologies with cluttered shores, open wounds, temporary bodies, and a fateful voice. I'll be watching what he comes out with next.”
—Wen-yi Lee, author of The Dark We Know