The Light Between Us

At work one night, photography archivist Charlie Sze-Toh receives a misdirected letter from Wang Tian Wei, a 1920s colonial era Chinese photographer. Through a mysterious digital folder and photographic plates, a conversation is sparked, leading to a romance that spans lifetimes.

In his time, Tian Wei scours a turbulent Singapore for his missing friend Aiko, leading him to the perfumed chambers of a Japanese brothel. Meanwhile, in the modern day, Charlie struggles against a family dynamic dominated by her stepmother, a manipulative matriarch who uses family secrets as bargaining chips.

Communication starts to become difficult and Tian Wei's letters are tinged by the increasing threat of Japanese Occupation. Will one last fate-defying letter from Charlie allow Tian Wei to keep their love alive?



Elaine Chiew is a writer, visual arts researcher and former corporate lawyer. Her short story collection The Heartsick Diaspora explores the Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese diaspora in London, New York, and Singapore.

She is a two-time winner of the Bridport International Short Story Prize, and has been anthologised in the U.S., Asia, and UK. Her debut novel The Light Between Us was longlisted for the inaugural Cheshire Novel Prize.



'A novel that is at once a love story, a meditation on photography, an elegant historical fiction, and a gripping tale that enchanted me to the very last page'



'An intricate, richly layered and meticulously researched historical detective story'



'Dances elegantly between truths and lies, promises and threats, and between a sweet dream and harsh reality'



'The way I view a forever love is profoundly changed'



'A dreamy treatise of art in its many forms'



'Historical fiction raised to a premier level of literary excellence'