A Bit of Earth is an imaginatively rich and aesthetically accomplished novel. Lim’s clever fusion of fiction and history, and her use of simple, supple, and controlled diction, enriched with occasional humour and a spattering of sparkling imagery, make the novel brilliant, stimulating, and a compelling read.

Mohammad A. Quayum

Professor & Head Department of English Language and Literature
International Islamic University, Malaysia

A Bit of Earth is important both as a literary masterwork as well as a historical document telling in fictional terms the social history of Perak’s Kinta Valley. It also has the virtue of being un-put-downable—a sure sign of a master storyteller, but over and above this, the novel affirms Suchen as one of the most important writers to have come out of Malaysia.

Wong Phui Nam

Poet, Malaysia

A Bit of Earth chronicles the visceral and cultural struggle of a young Chinese immigrant to survive in an equally struggling Malayan nation. His experience reminds us of the significance of origins, how it defines us as individuals and as members of our community. Likewise, this experience confirms how difficult and confusing it is to locate a liminal ethnicity within the diasporic and postcolonial contexts. The immigrant earns his bit of earth only by continuously re-inventing himself and by negotiating with the forces of history.

The novel makes history personal. It is a joy to teach and a riveting read.

Lily Rose Tope, Ph D

Professor, Department of English & Comparative Literature
University of the Philippines

Astonishing tour de force. You have created a physical and social landscape and peopled it with characters with real human feelings on issues of political import as well as on the everyday strains of personal and social survival.

Martin Marroni

Poet, Scotland

I was very impressed by the range and scope of the novel—how you pack in so much very fascinating history. Also how you deal with the conflict within families as it relates to a political situation. Tuck Heng is a wonderful character and I was totally hooked on his particular story. And you bring the whole thing to a splendid climax. I enjoyed learning so much about other cultures and was sorry to get to the end of the book!”

Diana Hendry

Poet & Writer
United Kingdom

Her novel brings into sharp relief conflicts over colonization, nationalism, and community. The central question explored by A Bit of Earth—how individuals transform and yet maintain feelings of belonging in a rapidly changing world—is as relevant in Singapore and Malaysia today as it was during the time in which the novel is set.

Philip Holden

Associate Professor
Department of English Language and Literature
National University of Singapore

Suchen Christine Lim’s A Bit of Earth depicts the emergence of national consciousness in nineteenth-century Malaya amid the engrossing, complex relations between multi-ethnic characters and their families. A compelling and dramatic novel that draws the reader easily into the life of its main protagonist Tuck Heng, the immigrant from China made good, A Bit of Earth deserves to be read for giving us a sense of a past not usually experienced in contemporary Singapore fiction and for provocatively getting us to question the way we make sense of history, what we remember and what we forget.

Angelia Poon

Assistant Professor
English Language and Literature
National Institute of Education
Nanyang Technological University