Novel
Flowers at Dawn
வைகறைப் பூக்கள்
Ma. Ilangkannan · 1990
Synopsis
Anbarasan comes from Tamil Nadu to Singapore in the forties, on the eve of the war. The Indians settled there serve their colonial masters while supporting the struggle for India's independence: they hang the portrait of Subhas Chandra Bose at home without ceasing to praise Gandhi and non-violence. When the Japanese take the island, Anbarasan joins the Indian National Army, and his love for Manimegalai is thrown into turmoil.
Context
The novel appeared in 1990, after several short story collections by the author, who draws his stories from real lives and sets them in specific periods of Singapore's history. It shows the shifting identities of the city's Tamils according to the political forces of the moment. Included in the advanced Tamil syllabus of Singaporean schools, it had a second edition in 2006, was translated into English and published in 2012 by Epigram Books under the title Flowers at Dawn, and a university company made a stage production of it in 2019.
Who it is for
A historical novel in Tamil, now available in English; a few reference points on the Japanese occupation and on Subhas Chandra Bose help in following it.
Prizes and reception
Presented as a landmark novel about the Tamil community of Singapore during the occupation, it was the subject of a programme devoted to the country's Tamil classics.