Singapore Tales Of The Macabre

SUICIDE CLUB BY RACHEL HENG Publisher: Sceptre 372 pages, available Publisher: Sceptre 372 pages, available in bookstores

IF YOU COULD LIVE FOREVER, would you? Fiction has been toying with the idea of immortality for centuries, from Dracula and Gulliver's Travels to the popular 1986 Highlander film.

Freddie Mercury famously belted the theme song for the latter, that goes: "Who wants to live forevaaaa......?" And the collective reply seems to be: "No, thanks." There are just too many clauses, like having to drink blood, avoid the sun and constantly battle other immortals.

Along comes Singapore writer Rachel Heng who's devised a perfect conceit for immortality in her new dystopian novel Suicide Club. When Heng was looking for publishers last year, Suicide Club sparked heated bidding between international publishers. Sceptre won the Commonwe…