Names Have Been Changed - by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

After ten years on the run around the world, Ophir--not her real name--comes clean in a confessional podcast about her life as a fugitive, charming countless fans even as she risks her freedom.

Ophir's tale begins in Singapore, where a petty crime spins out of control, estranging her from home and family. Resorting to false identities and forged passports (being mixed-race helps), she crisscrosses the globe from a Paris-themed hostess bar in Tokyo, to a bustling Chinese restaurant in London, to a snowbound mountain town in Colorado and beyond.

Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Ophir is funny, prickly, tough, and vulnerable, entrancing her listeners with an irresistible, no-holds-barred recounting of not only her crimes (plural) but also her deepest secrets and regrets. Even as she moves seamlessly across class lines and continents, she grapples with the shock of relentless dislocation, a painful reexamination of identity, and a deep yearning for home. She tries to find comfort in new lovers and ill-gotten luxury goods, but she can't help attracting trouble, and she soon faces an unexpected, high-stakes choice that could change her fate forever.

Names Have Been Changed is a stylish, fast-paced debut novel that reveals the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Filled with danger and twists, it's ultimately a story about immigration and belonging--one unlike any you've seen before.

Review Quotes

"Names Have Been Changed is a brave debut. It tells a migrant story, specifically a unique aspect of the migrant experience, namely a constant escape from the past in order to seek an existence on one's own terms. The novel is ingeniously conceived and written in an intelligent, fierce style. It's a fine contribution to migrant literature of our time."
--Ha Jin, bestselling author of the National Book Award winner Waiting

"Names Have Been Changed is a spiky, smart story about an itinerant Singaporean ex-con who yearns above all, to return. It's a book about displacement, friendship, diaspora, love, and criminal enterprise, but above all, the gasping need for connection, when home is out of reach."
--Vanessa Chan, international bestselling author of The Storm We Made

About the Author

Yu-Mei Balasingamchow was born in Singapore and moved to Boston, where she was a bookseller at Papercuts Bookshop and where she teaches writing workshops at GrubStreet. Her short fiction has received a Pushcart Prize special mention and been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. She has an MFA in creative writing from Boston University and has received grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Sewanee Writers Conference, and Singapore's National Arts Council. Names Have Been Changed is her debut novel.