"When The Future Comes Too Soon"

"When The Future Comes Too Soon" is a novel by Selina Siak Chin Yoke.  I have not read her debut novel, "The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds," but I will be seeking it out after reading this one.

At the center of "When The Future Comes Too Soon" is Mei Foong, a young wife and mother of Chinese descent living with her family and extended family in Malaysia under British rule.  However, when World War II breaks out, the British leave and the Japanese invade and occupy Malaysia.  Residents of Chinese descent are suspected by the Japanese of being Communist sympathizers and everyone under Japanese rule has a difficult time making ends meet.

This story is about not just the war and how it impacted Malaysian citizens but more about relationships forged during that time and realizations about Mei's own family members.  She ends up being caught between two men -- her husband, an engineer trained in Britain, and a married civil servant.  Her husband does not treat women with respect while the civil engineer does and she sees what her life might have been if she'd made a different choice when young men came calling.  The choices she has to make in the end for her own preservation are heartbreaking but also necessary.  pazt