Interview with Rachel Heng

6 September 2023

The Great Reclamation is a work of historical fiction set in Singapore that has received rave reviews from the New Yorker and the New York Times. A coming-of-age love story, it took Singaporean author Rachel Heng five years of research into topics such as land reclamation, the Japanese occupation, and postwar politics in Singapore. We speak to her about her book, her research process, and some of the challenges of writing historical fiction.