Eddy Boudel Tan puts his heart on every page. You can see it beating in his language, sense it pulsing beneath his characters’ skins, and feel it breaking in the lives he lays bare in his novels. He isn’t afraid of exploring the tangled messes we make or the complicated roads we take in our pursuit of happiness and redemption. It’s exciting to read a writer open to taking big chances at the start of his career, someone willing to write boldly, to not make excuses for characters, or give readers an easy way out. Boudel Tan is a writer who will only travel deeper as he progresses, and that heart will inevitably beat more strongly in the years to come.