The Light Between Us dimmed by poor execution and editing

It does not bode well that on the first page of the story proper, there is an error.

- Ong Sor Fern

A pintu pagar is the classic half-door at the entrance of shophouses, not a window shutter, as the opening chapter would have it.

This misstep might be forgiven if the rest of the narrative flowed well. Unfortunately, that is not the case with Malaysia-born lawyer-turned-writer Elaine Chiew's debut novel.

The Light Between Us tells the story of Wang Tian Wei, a photographer in 1920s Singapore who gets drawn into the political foment of the era. Paralleling his tale is that of Charlie Sze-Toh, an archivist researching photography in 2019 Singapore.

Their paths cross in the form of letters that get delivered to each other across time via glass negatives and photographs.

Time-travelling star-crossed lovers are no great leap in this era of the mainstreaming of speculative fiction. Refer to Audrey Niffenegger's 2003 bestseller The Time Traveler's Wife.

But this is not the only genre in The Light Between Us, which suffers from multiple identity crises.

The book ricochets indiscriminately from Crazy Rich Asians melodrama to time-travelling tale to historical epic with an unevenness in tone that never quite allows the reader to suspend disbelief long enough to be swept away by the story.