'Ismael, a transplanted Singaporean, lives on a bucolic suburban Brisbane street. His job is to decide whether asylum-seekers get to stay in the country, a dilemma that never fails to remind him of his own immigrant status. But then his life begins to take on the hue of a nightmare: his neighbour inexplicably commits suicide, his wife dies of cancer, his daughter abandons him for the United States, and his Siamese cat goes missing.
'In Lau Siew Mei’s new novel, an enclosed Australian neighbourhood becomes a microcosm of a world increasingly hostile towards migrants.' (Publication summary)
'Lau Siew Mei’s novel The Last Immigrant revolves around the residents of a small six-house cul-de-sac in Brisbane, Australia. The main protagonist is Ismael, an immigrant from Singapore, who works in the Brisbane office of the federal government department that deals with approving asylum seekers’ claims for protection and residency. Like many representations of suburban life in fiction, the pace of life in this Brisbane street seems calm and unruffled but, inside the homes, the inhabitants’ lives are not only dramatic but – in this case – also interlinked in unexpected ways. Stressed at work, Ismael’s home life is increasingly unsettling – as readers learn that his neighbour has committed suicide, his wife is diagnosed with a serious illness and his daughter plans to move overseas. Despite the rational way that these events and situations can be described and even explained, an eerie sense of creeping malevolence underpins this story as it unfolds. This escalates when Ismael’s cat, Imelda – a surprisingly key figure in this narrative – is nowhere to be found.' (Publication summary)
'Lau Siew Mei’s novel The Last Immigrant revolves around the residents of a small six-house cul-de-sac in Brisbane, Australia. The main protagonist is Ismael, an immigrant from Singapore, who works in the Brisbane office of the federal government department that deals with approving asylum seekers’ claims for protection and residency. Like many representations of suburban life in fiction, the pace of life in this Brisbane street seems calm and unruffled but, inside the homes, the inhabitants’ lives are not only dramatic but – in this case – also interlinked in unexpected ways. Stressed at work, Ismael’s home life is increasingly unsettling – as readers learn that his neighbour has committed suicide, his wife is diagnosed with a serious illness and his daughter plans to move overseas. Despite the rational way that these events and situations can be described and even explained, an eerie sense of creeping malevolence underpins this story as it unfolds. This escalates when Ismael’s cat, Imelda – a surprisingly key figure in this narrative – is nowhere to be found.' (Publication summary)
