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Jon Gresham’s debut novel, Gus: The Life & Opinions of the Last Raffles’ Banded Langur, was a finalist for the 2023 Epigram Books Fiction Prize and is forthcoming in early 2024.
Gus is an action packed, eco-fiction about a Raffles’ Banded Langur trying to get home at the end of the world.
The novel is the story of his journey through a Singapore falling apart, and his search for home and community.
Gus, an abused, talking Raffles’ banded langur, entertains drivers at a Jakarta intersection. Charlie Tan, an auditor, who secretly wants to be a clown, rescues Gus and smuggles him back to Singapore on the last flight before the borders close.
Gus yearns to find his family at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve but at every turn the violent turmoil unleashed by rampaging talking monkeys led by the fearsome Monkey King obstructs his path. Gus and Charlie part ways as the monkey revolution spreads chaos and mayhem across the Singapore. A Filipino nurse, Juliette Salonga, rocked by guilt and grief for the death of her daughter and husband, helps Gus in his quest.
As nature reasserts itself across the island, they search for a home that will accept them for who they are. Gus and Juliette trudge up and down the Rail Corridor to the Monkey Kingdom at Clementi Forest, while Charlie finds survivors taking refuge amongst the heritage shophouses of Blair Plain and higher levels of the Pinnacle@Duxton.
Will Gus find his family — the last Raffles’ banded langurs — at Bukit Timah? Will Charlie get to be a clown or will his past come back to haunt him? Will Juliette find peace? Will people listen when nature talks back?
What they’re saying about Gus
“An ecological dystopian romp…a zeitgeisty, absurdist tale that will entertain and make you think.”
Lee Jing-Jing, author of How We Disappeared
“A truly one-of-a-kind work of speculative fiction.”
Ng Yi-Sheng, multi-award-winning author of Lion City
“…funny and tragic…An utter page turner, Gus is the product of a magnificently troubling imagination that will scare its readers the next time they attempt a hiking trail.”
Gwee Li Sui, poet, graphic artist and literary critic
“Breathless, unrelenting, but also hilarious and unexpectedly poignant, here is a surreal and wildly entertaining morality tale about what happens when the natural world fulfils its vengeance on modern life...”
Cyril Wong, award-winning poet and author of This Side of Heaven
“…a thought-provoking and entertaining work that hurtles from escapade to escapade with humour and compassion.”
Yeo Wei Wei, author of These Foolish Things
“An engaging read that stretches the imagination while it interrogates where we stand when faced with the fearful unknown.”
Pamela Ho, former journalist and co-author of Adventures of 2 Girls
“…absurdist, absolutely gonzo, post-apocalyptic book. Creative, propelling – a real pleasure to read (as long as you're not on a dark forested path along Bukit Timah)."
Victor Fernando R Ocampo, author of The Infinite Library and Other Stories
Finalist
2023 Epigram Books Fiction Prize
“I walked and cycled a lot along the Rail Corridor
and asked myself what all the living things would say
if they could speak.”
