Bicycle #[nn]

Set against the unmistakable imagery of a wartime rising sun flag, this 2014 Epigram Books graphic novel from Cheah Sinann places a young boy face-to-face with an armed Japanese soldier gripping a bicycle — smoke billowing in the distance and a colonial streetscape stretching behind them. The tension between the small, vulnerable child and the uniformed, rifle-bearing soldier is quietly devastating, all conveyed through clean, confident linework. It's a powerful reminder of how personal history can be told through the most ordinary of objects.