Danielle Lim

A Mental Breakdown, a Life Journey

The Sound of Sch

And Softly Go to the Crossings

Can a life weave along through the same notes and yet come to play forth different sounds? The Sound of SCH (pronounced S-C-H) is the true story of a journey with mental illness, beautifully told by Danielle Lim from a time when she grew up witnessing her uncle's untold struggle with a crippling mental and social disease, and her mother's difficult role as caregiver. The story takes place between 1961 and 1994, backdropped by a fast-globalising Singapore where stigmatisation of persons afflicted with mental illness nevertheless remains deep-seated. Unflinchingly raw and honest in its portrayal of living with schizophrenia, The Sound of Sch is a moving account of human resiliency and sacrifice in the face of brokenness. Winner of the Singapore Literature Prize (Non-Fiction 2016)

The Sound of SCH: A Mental Breakdown, A Life Journey

All Our Brave, Earthly Scars

Grace Hwang battles alongside fellow healthcare workers in Singapore when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus strikes in 2003. She looks back at her years in Trafalgar Home, a leper colony where she lived from 1961 to 1968. Alice, a friend from Trafalgar, is dying of cancer when SARS strikes. Alice had a baby while in Trafalgar Home, who had to be given up for adoption. Now, in the thick of SARS, Grace attempts to reunite Alice with her daughter before Alice dies, and seeks to discover who found the cure to leprosy. SARS is woven together with the leprosy plotline, another frightening illness that led to its sufferers being quarantined. Although the characters in the novel are fictional, the backdrop of events and places — SARS, Trafalgar Home, leprosy and its cure — are real and an important part of Singapore’s history. Formerly known as the Singapore Leper Asylum, Trafalgar Home was a state-sanctioned asylum to detain leprosy sufferers indefinitely. The Leprosy Act was repealed in Singapore in 1976. Now, the story of Trafalgar Home is told to the many Singaporeans who have never heard of it or have forgotten it. This moving, thought-provoking story will strike at the hearts of many Singaporeans across a range of age groups, as it centres on the SARS outbreak of 2003. This event in our recent history is still remembered by many Singaporeans. In Singapore, 33 people died and 238 were infected, many who were healthcare workers who made tremendous sacrifices.

Danielle Lim

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