Clarissa Goenawan

Clarissa Goenawan is an Indonesian-born novelist based in Singapore whose English-language fiction blends psychological mystery, family tension, and subtle speculative elements. She often sets her stories in Japan, using quiet observation and withheld histories to reveal how characters understand one another. Watersong, published by Scribe in 2022, follows Shouji Arai, whose confidential listening job at an exclusive tea shop in Akakawa brings him into conflict with a powerful client. He must flee to Tokyo, but his girlfriend Youko has vanished. A fortune teller’s warning about three women with water in their names follows him alongside recurring dreams of drowning. While searching for Youko, Shouji begins questioning what she told him about herself. Goenawan uses that uncertainty to explore lost love, secrecy, memory, and the force of earlier choices. The novel’s controlled atmosphere and uncanny details continue the Japanese settings associated with her earlier work while standing alone as a psychological story about escape and connection.