Set in Malaya before and after World War II, A Cloistered War is a moving coming-of-age memoir of Maisie Duncan, granddaughter of Captain Vaz, a well-known Penang identity. When Maisie’s mother passes away and her father remarries, the world that she knows—delightful times of curry tiffins, porcelain dolls, Cantonese amahs, and (not-so-delightful) castor-oil Saturdays—falls apart as all the children are sent away from the family home to CHIJ Institutions and Christian Brothers’ schools. Maisie and her sister spend the next 14 years of their youth traversing Malaya as boarders in these cloistered worlds. The sisters survive a number of perilous events including Singapore’s first air raid and a convent invasion by Japanese troops looking for ‘comfort women’. Throughout the Occupation, they lived under the watchful eyes of the convent nuns. Despite the atrocities and brutality of the occupying forces, Maisie notes incidents of their kindness and humanity. Maisie’s sharpness, humour and poignant recollections permeate the book, and brings each character to life.
