{"product_id":"the-inventors","title":"The Inventors","description":"\u003cul class=\"tabs\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\"\u003eDescription\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePraise\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"tabs-content\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"active\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA history of embarrassments in the garden begins a meditation on the nature of memory. Unfolding alongside notes and marginalia, a ghost story becomes a reflection on grief, remembrance, and identity. Failed writing projects coalesce into a contemplation on the limits of our narratives. The haunting essays in \u003cem\u003eThe Inventors\u003c\/em\u003e explore the stories that we tell ourselves—and the ways in which we constantly invent and reinvent our \/ selves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Mediocre curry; a re-gifted book languishing in a second-hand bookstore; stolen orchids; a procession of fictional diseases. Li makes an alluring, haunting book out of such “mismatched moments”, out of the ways we disappoint ourselves and each other. This is the kind of failure we should all aspire to.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/epigrambookshop.xyz\/collections\/authors\/author_tse-hao-guang\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eTse Hao Guang\u003c\/a\u003e, Author of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/epigrambookshop.xyz\/products\/the-international-left-hand-calligraphy-association\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe International Left-Hand Calligraphy Association\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Writing, both the act and its product, is a seduction,” writes Daryl Li in \u003cem\u003eThe Inventors\u003c\/em\u003e. By turns philosophical and thoughtful, romantic and filled with yearning, \u003cem\u003eThe Inventors\u003c\/em\u003e locates Li’s many obsessions in the locus of writing. Spanning engagements with gardens, video games, art, poetry, photography, and theatre, Li deftly transforms the range of his experiences and encounters into nostalgic prose. His hybrid essays hover elegantly over the field of memory. The myths, histories, and relations that haunt Li’s musings reveal the image of an essayist aware of the limits and possibilities of his craft. Amidst the relative paucity of essay collections in Singapore, \u003cem\u003eThe Inventors\u003c\/em\u003e stands out for its display of capaciousness and honesty.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/epigrambookshop.xyz\/collections\/authors\/author_jonathan-chan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eJonathan Chan\u003c\/a\u003e, Author of \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/epigrambookshop.xyz\/products\/going-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003e\u003cem\u003egoing home\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Daryl Li’s \u003cem\u003eThe Inventors\u003c\/em\u003e is an uncategorisable, unrelentingly gorgeous tour de force. It contemplates the fallibility and necessity of memory, the imperative to narrativise and so order our lives despite the elisions of story, and asks how we know who we are if we cannot even name who we have been. Li writes that “Every story is a ghost story, every story is a ghost,” as marginalia on a ghost story whose annotations regarding the circumstances and context that created the story eventually overwhelms and exceeds the tale itself. The text is rich and capacious and robust in reference: Derrida, Rimbaud, Theroux, Valéry, Bolaño, Cortázar, Barthes on Arcimboldo, are brought to bear on life, while narratives diverse as Indiana Jones, the plays of Kuo Pao Kun, Jurassic Park, Millenium Actress, and Resident Evil are invoked and interrogated in turn. With great humility and nuance, Li considers his life and regrets and memories, a fugue of lost lovers, lost family, the botanic gardens, orchids, culinary art, the Japanese military occupation of Singapore, arboriculture, theatre, scars. Stunning black-and-white photos intersperse the text, offering the “momentary trace” of artifactual memory that become sites of recollection and reification. All the world is raised as spectre and memory and immanent self—every ghost is mourned—in this brilliant and rich debut.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Michael Copperman, Author of \u003cem\u003eTeacher: Two Years in the Mississippi Delta\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDaryl Li\u003c\/strong\u003e is a writer of literary fiction and nonfiction based in Singapore. His first book, \u003cem\u003eThe Inventors\u003c\/em\u003e, is a collection of creative nonfiction published by Rosetta Cultures. His work has been longlisted for the \u003cem\u003eAustralian Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e Calibre Essay Prize and Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, and been a finalist in the \u003cem\u003eGeorgia Review\u003c\/em\u003e Prose Prize. He has won a Golden Point Award for short fiction. His work can be found in publications including \u003cem\u003eQuarterly Literary Review Singapore\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNANG\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eOF ZOOS\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eUnwinnable Monthly\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eGastronomica\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe can be found on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads at @nonstickpanda.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Alkem","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53304504516905,"sku":"9789811882449","price":30.0,"currency_code":"SGD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/0041\/files\/03.jpg?v=1782971393","url":"https:\/\/epigrambookshop.xyz\/products\/the-inventors","provider":"Epigram","version":"1.0","type":"link"}