A Conversation with Kehinde Fadipe
What inspired you to write The Sun Sets in Singapore?
I was inspired to write The Sun Sets in Singapore after completing my first fully drafted novel, which was dark and heavy. I’d just had my first child and I wasn’t looking forward to revisiting the bleak world I’d created. I needed something light and fun but textured, a story that reflected some of what I was seeing and experiencing living in Singapore. I had a travel and lifestyle blog at the time (blackgirlinspore), so I would post an excerpt a week, which helped motivate me to write. I got a couple messages from readers who were loving the story, which boosted my confidence, so I decided to really work on crafting it as a full-length manuscript.
Take us through some of the choices you made while writing in terms of structure, voice, plot, and scene setting. Were there any major changes to the novel between your first draft and the last? Any “behind-the-scenes” details that didn’t end up making it into the book?
I wrote The Sun Sets in Singapore on and off over six years, so it went through many drafts and changes! The structure was always linear, and I always had three voices, but I cut subplots, such as a friendship between Lillian and one of her students, and scenes of Dara revisiting her grandparents’ house in Lagos. In the end, I decided that the symbolism of Dara’s return was enough, and any developments that didn’t significantly alter where the characters ended up or the choices they made had to go.
The focus of later drafts centered on fleshing out relationships and events rather than editing things out. For example, being clear about why Amaka was drawn to Lani and developing their sexual chemistry. I took out the entire Bali section early on and then, when working with my agent, realized how pivotal that trip was and put it back in again. In the final drafts with my two editors, there was a lot of revisiting deleted scenes and lines (which they had never seen before) in order to solve problems they’d raised. I learned a lot about my style and process by working on this book and receiving such valuable feedback; hopefully those lessons have been learned for the next one!
When you started writing, did any character feel fully formed in your mind? Or did Dara’s, Amaka’s, and Lillian’s personalities crystalize later on in the process? What did you want to convey with their lives—and their struggles?
All three women remained much the same from the first draft to the last, although I had to work on communicating their motivations and inner stumbling blocks more clearly. Dara was inspired by the corporate women I met in Singapore who are driven and successful and seem to me to be two very different creatures in and out of their work clothes. One of them told me about the microaggressions she experienced at work, and it made me so angry, but then not long after, I went along to an event where she and the “aggressor” were chatting and laughing away! That’s when I realized how clueless I was about how difficult it is to navigate and stay afloat in that world.
Amaka came to me after spending time with someone completely unapologetic about her incredible shoe collection and I “saw” Lillian at a barbecue: she was quiet, graceful, and shy, surrounded by a lot of boisterous laughter. We said hello and that was it: I was fascinated by her mysteriousness.
All three women were swimming in my head from the start. While I didn’t have any kind of agenda when I began, I knew I wanted three distinct personalities to explore what it’s like to make friendships in a foreign environment, with people you might not normally gravitate toward. Conflict arose naturally from their internal and external struggles but writing about something that drew them together—books—made me enjoy writing the novel even more.
The Sun Sets in Singapore is based, in part, on your own adventures living as an expat in Singapore. Can you talk us through the ways in which your experiences informed the book?
I’ve experienced life as an expat in different ways. Most people come to Singapore for work and then leave as soon as their job comes to an end, but over ten years, I’ve been a tourist, a part- and full-time teacher, an “expat mummy,” a jobbing actor, and a writer. I drew on the different worlds I’ve been plugged into over the years, so I understood Lillian’s boredom and disconnection, Amaka’s feelings of insecurity, being surrounded by so much ostentatious wealth, and Dara’s lack of belonging.
There are a number of powerful themes explored in The Sun Sets in Singapore, such as female friendship, careerism, motherhood, and what it means to be true to oneself in the face of hardship, whether that be professional, financial, or personal. Why was it important to you to explore these issues in fiction, and what are you hoping readers will take away from Dara’s, Amaka’s, and Lillian’s experiences?
I wanted to explore how interconnected all those areas of life are: money, career, friendships, and ambition. Something that’s become very clear to me is that women can either help each other do the hard, necessary things in life, or hold each other back. Each woman is looking for a pseudo family within their friendships, but their own baggage and issues with their biological families prevents them from making the best decisions for themselves and makes it difficult for them to trust one another. I think the ultimate type of friendship is one in which you can embrace your friends’ flaws and be entertained by them, whilst at the same time wanting the best for them and pushing them to grow. Authentic.
The novel also delves into the ways in which culture underlies the decisions we make, even when we’re far from home. How did Dara, Amaka, and Lillian feel about their cultural identities in the novel, and how difficult was it for them to straddle two cultures?
I don’t think Dara’s or Lillian’s conscious choices are propelled by their cultural identities as women with Nigerian heritages. They are aware that a large part of who they are hasn’t been filled in, and Dara especially yearns to reconnect and reclaim the confidence she had as a child, growing up within a very specific Lagos community that she, as an adult, feels shut out of. Amaka is definitely making choices to take her as far away as possible from the restrictive culture she was brought up in, in which she is defined by who her father is, her gender, and her class.
You trained as an actress in England and have recently returned to performing. How did it feel, turning to writing as a creative outlet as opposed to acting? Do you enjoy any other artistic pursuits?
It’s the chicken and the egg conundrum: did the writing come before the acting or vice versa? I wrote all through drama school and while I was acting, albeit in a scattered way, but it was just before I moved to Singapore that I decided to focus on fiction. I also started reading more obsessively, with the desire to learn—not just for pleasure. I also love to write screenplays and I play the piano, but I wouldn’t call that a relaxing hobby because I play nonstop for hours and then I don’t touch my piano for months! I enjoy sketching, too.
How did you go about curating the book club’s reading list?
There was no plan. It happened naturally the more I fleshed out the book club characters. I made myself laugh with the scenes where the women go back and forth about what titles to choose next, and the responses from my editors helped develop the list. It was a really fun process because we all obviously love books! I wish I could have had an even longer list.
Take us through some of the significant locations in the novel. Have you personally visited all of these places? Generally speaking, how has travel and living in multiple countries informed your writing?
I’ve been to most of these places, and I’ve either lived or worked in or near most of them. For a long time, I only orbited around the center of Singapore, but then I stopped taking taxis as frequently and started to take buses more. I also befriended people who lived more on the outskirts of the city. As a foreigner, there is a lot about the country I still don’t know or understand, so I didn’t want to write as though I did. I wanted to capture what I love and have observed about Singapore, how you can walk around a UNESCO heritage site with roosters clucking around and then, a few minutes later, walk into the number one bar in the world.
On a more personal note, I drew on my experience of leaving Lagos at fourteen and my more recent experiences traveling on holiday in Asia with a Nigerian passport, and the frustration of applying for visas!
I don’t know if living in multiple countries has influenced my writing as much as it’s opened up a world of people that I could never have met otherwise.
What do you hope readers will take away from reading The Sun Sets in Singapore?
I hope it makes them smile and laugh and disappear for a few hours.
Basking in Singapore’s nonstop sunshine, Dara, Amaka, and Lillian are living the glamorous expat dream—until a mysterious (not to mention handsome) new arrival infiltrates their tight-knit community and ruins everything: “Wanderlust-inducing” (Lola Akinmade Åkerström, international bestselling author).
The Lion City has gone by many names and is famous for many things—its decadent street food, its world-class shopping, its lush gardens that burst with tropical blooms. But paradise is always hiding a snake.
For Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK, Singapore is opportunity. Every day, brokering deals for her firm’s wealthy clientele, she gets closer to her ultimate goal: making partner. For Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria, Singapore is extravagance. Gucci, Prada, Hermès—she loves nothing more than to luxuriate in the major department stores that call her name on Orchard Road. And for Lillian, a former pianist turned “trailing spouse” from the U.S., Singapore is reinvention. In a stunning apartment with 360° views, the island seems to glitter as far as the eye can see.
But complications are looming in the form of an enigmatic stranger, whose presence exposes cracks in Singapore’s beguiling façade. Dara’s ambitions mean she has no life outside the firm, and her insecurities are threatening to derail the promotion she’s spent the last six years striving for. Amaka is desperate to escape the chaos she left behind at home and hiding a spiraling shopping addiction that’s endangering her very sense of self. And while Lillian’s life may be the envy of outsiders, a new obsession is imperiling everything—and everyone—around her.
In The Sun Sets in Singapore, Kehinde Fadipe captures the richness of this metropolis through the eyes of three tenacious women, who are about to learn that unfinished history can follow you anywhere, no matter how far you run from home.