Dark Sun

British rule dominates in the Far East. Brimming with ambition and optimism, twenty-year-old Larry Cairns boards the Empress of India, bound for Singapore, an island filled with promise and opportunity. For Larry, it is the chance to join the renowned trading house of Hammond and Teng and build a career for himself. While on board, Larry meets and befriends Chung Kai, the Chinese son of a rival company. But in a world of colonial snobbery and rigid social codes, it is a friendship that is met with disdain by their fellow passengers.

And matters are further complicated when Larry falls in love with Kai’s sister Lan, as their clandestine relationship transgresses the strict racial codes of the colonial period. But any chance of a future with Lan is shattered when Larry marries Margaret Anstey, the daughter of a wealthy businessman. A marriage ‘of the right sort’ is just the step Larry needs to take in order to move forward in his career – but it is a decision that will have consequences years later. Larry Cairns’s friendship with Chung Kai and love for Lan expose the racial hierarchy of colonial Singapore, while his conventional marriage and career unfold beneath the increasing threat of Japanese conquest.