Described by NPR Fresh Air as “a startlingly brilliant tour de force”, Sonny Liew’s The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye became the first graphic novel to win the Singapore Literature Prize for English Fiction on July 14, 2016. The Art of Charlie Chan, which also won the Book of the Year accolade at the Singapore Book Awards, is a masterpiece that weaves together a dizzying array of styles and forms to construct a moving portrait of a fictional comics artist while examining the narratives behind the Singapore Story.

It was thrust into the spotlight after Singapore’s National Arts Council withdrew its grant for the book just before it was launched, claiming that it breached funding guidelines through its “retelling of Singapore’s history (which) potentially undermines the authority or legitimacy of the Government.”

Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, it was a New York Times Bestseller, and is due for release in France by Urban Comics and in Italy by BAO Publishing.