SINGAPORE – When Singaporean writer Jemimah Wei shared an early draft of her debut novel to a more established writer, she pointed out flatly to Wei that her two sister characters were – without mincing her words – “sociopathic”.

“The wrong word from somebody whom you respect can set you back, and that destabilised my progress on the book for a long time,” says the 33-year-old, who took close to a decade to publish her novel. Just as well that Wei eventually trashed that piece of feedback, for The Original Daughter – in all its glorious darkness – eventually sold at auction for more than US$500,000 (S$650,000).

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