Shortlisted for Singapore Literature Prize 2024 (Fiction in English)

Shortlisted for Singapore Literature Prize 2024 (Best Debut: Fiction in English)

Finalist for the 2022 Epigram Books Fiction Prize

Chandru, a third-generation Singaporean, realises his ambition through an arranged marriage.

His wife, Meera, fights her fate by living a double life.

Unhappily married, they make sense of their decisions through a study of their own past.

Siddharth, their only son, is practically raised next door with their neighbour’s granddaughter Malli.

As the childhood best friends grow up, they helplessly watch their tumultuous love tear them apart.

A generation raised on the Singaporean dream gives birth to another sheltered in its shadows.

They are not the marginalised or the oppressed, merely the majority doing their best.

About the Author

Nisha Mehraj left full-time teaching and became a private tutor so she could pursue writing.

The only home she has ever known is Singapore, yet she lives vicariously through her characters and escapes into the safety of the worlds she creates.

It was her grandmother’s passion for life that fuelled Nisha's own ambitions; she'd like to think she made her proud.

Her short story “Chai” was published in Mascara Literary Review in 2012. We Do Not Make Love Here is her first novel.