Publication
Faber & Faber (2003), 320 pages
Collections
Subjects
Awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Shortlist — Fiction — 2002)
Description
Fragrant Harbour is the story of four people whose intertwined lives span Asia's last seventy years. Tom Stewart leaves England just before it is hit by the Great Depression to seek his fortune, and finds it in running Hong Kong's best hotel. Sister Maria is a beautiful and uncompromising Chinese nun whom Stewart meets on the boat out from England; their friendship spans decades and changes both their lives. Dawn Stone is an English journalist who becomes the public face of money and power and big business. Matthew Ho is a young Chinese entrepreneur whose life has been shaped by painful choices made long before his birth, and who is now facing his own difficulties, and opportunities in the twenty-first century.The complacency of colonial life in the 1930s; the horrors of the Japanese occupation during the Second World War; the post-war boom and transformation of Hong Kong into a laboratory of capitalism at its most cut-throat; the growth of the Triads; the handover of the city to the Chinese - all are present in Fragrant Harbouran epic novel… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member mattviews
John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbor adopts more complexity and formality in comparison to his two previous novels, the painfully humorous and opinionated The Debt to Pleasure and the satirical Mr. Philips. Readers who are familiar with the history of the former British colony will discern Fragrant
Tom Stewart, the younger son of an inn owner in England, was born with a visceral desire to travel and China had always caught his imagination. In 1935, at the age of 22, he bought a ticket on the Darjeeling in a six-week voyage to Hong Kong via Marseilles, the Mediteranean, Suez Canal and Bombay. As the ship rounded a wide corner onto the Thames, the England shore receded and never did Stewart expect his rash decision to leave the country would alter the course of his life forever.
The arrival to the ship of two Catholic missionaries, Sister Benedicta and Sister Maria, caused an upheaval. When Sister Benedicta and a businessman Marler fell out on each other in a heated debate over the Catholic Church spreading superstition and ignorance, Stewart became a pawn of a wager. The wager stipulated that Sister Maria, a native of Fujian Province, could teach a Stewart wholly ignorant of the Chinese language and raised him to a functional standard in a matter of weeks.
Little did Stewart and Sister Maria know that the wager turned into a cherished friendship and proved its veracity when the two parted to their separate ways. Sister Maria diligently pursued her mission works in Mainland China while Stewart helped Masterson run The Empire Hotel in Hong Kong. Stewart's enduring of the changes of political environments, the Japanese occupation in early 1940s, and Mao's foundation of the People's Republic in 1949 burgeoned in him a close tie to the city.
In spite of Stewart's bittersweet reminiscence of his 60 years of life in the colony, he had painted an authentic picture of Hong Kong, with dashing verisimilitude, through the weathered gale of political shifts, the rampant economic shoot-up, and the augmenting corruption and crime. The magnitude with which he captured the geographical details and the vivid vignettes of Hong Kongers' lives could only be accessible to natives. Stewart expressed his complaisant affection for Hong Kong:
"You get past a certain point in life and you've accumulated a history in a place and so that's where you're from. Most of my memories and all my friends are here." (223)
I am a native of Hong Kong who never had the opportunity to live through the times Stewart had experienced. Growing up during the mid 1970s into the 1980s, when the fate of Hong Kong was put on the global spotlights, China prepared to take over the sovereignty in its glorious return to the embrace of motherland. Stewart had evoked the amazing fact that after the Bruits had reigned over 150 years, the English language (though taught in school and widely spoken) minimally penetrated the city. The Bruits had left behind its inveterate landmarks and traditions but only marginally affected the lives of average Hong Kongers.
The first part of the book, what seems to be some outrageous digression about a British journalist Dawn Stone's arriving at the colony in 1995, is to my minimal interest of the novel. While she did not contribute to the story until the very end, Lanchester has deftly employed her character to testify the near-snobbish lifestyle of modern Hong Kong cliques (the obsession of money, the swanking of wealth and expensive clothes, and the contention for success at the expense of stepping down others).
Tom Stewart reminded me the beguiling everyday, anecdotal life of Hong Kongers. He was taken by surprise by the ways in which he found the city a surprise. The exotic elements were what he expected and aggravated his desire to loosen the shackles of England. Like any foreign newcomers, he felt the need to conform and to fit in was crushing. Correspondences with Sister Maria through numerous letters had helped him adjust to the hustle-bustle. Inculcation of the Chinese language and literature gave him a lift in expanding his hotel business.
If one thing with which Stewart had nailed the place to the root, it would be the language and its speakers. Stewart deemed Cantonese (my native language) as one of the best languages for swearing because it was completely in harmony with the Cantonese characters (the bluntness, directness, money-mindedness, clannishness, worldliness, materialism, and argumentativeness). It truly hit home!
I unreservedly recommend this book to readers who want to explore the history and lives of Hong Kong in the twentieth century. Stewart's description of the city mirrored that to my grandfather. John Lanchester might have inadvertently mistaken Deep Water Bay for Repulse Bay, Magazine Gap Road for Old Peak Road, he truly knows the city where he spends a substantial amount of his life. He has presented his readers an unbiased view of Hong Kong: abound with its outward resplendency and underlying ignominy. After all Fragrant Harbor is a work of fiction, thoroughly and thoughtfully written.
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Harbor a novel set against the historical backdrop of Hong Kong in the twentieth century (1935-1997).Tom Stewart, the younger son of an inn owner in England, was born with a visceral desire to travel and China had always caught his imagination. In 1935, at the age of 22, he bought a ticket on the Darjeeling in a six-week voyage to Hong Kong via Marseilles, the Mediteranean, Suez Canal and Bombay. As the ship rounded a wide corner onto the Thames, the England shore receded and never did Stewart expect his rash decision to leave the country would alter the course of his life forever.
The arrival to the ship of two Catholic missionaries, Sister Benedicta and Sister Maria, caused an upheaval. When Sister Benedicta and a businessman Marler fell out on each other in a heated debate over the Catholic Church spreading superstition and ignorance, Stewart became a pawn of a wager. The wager stipulated that Sister Maria, a native of Fujian Province, could teach a Stewart wholly ignorant of the Chinese language and raised him to a functional standard in a matter of weeks.
Little did Stewart and Sister Maria know that the wager turned into a cherished friendship and proved its veracity when the two parted to their separate ways. Sister Maria diligently pursued her mission works in Mainland China while Stewart helped Masterson run The Empire Hotel in Hong Kong. Stewart's enduring of the changes of political environments, the Japanese occupation in early 1940s, and Mao's foundation of the People's Republic in 1949 burgeoned in him a close tie to the city.
In spite of Stewart's bittersweet reminiscence of his 60 years of life in the colony, he had painted an authentic picture of Hong Kong, with dashing verisimilitude, through the weathered gale of political shifts, the rampant economic shoot-up, and the augmenting corruption and crime. The magnitude with which he captured the geographical details and the vivid vignettes of Hong Kongers' lives could only be accessible to natives. Stewart expressed his complaisant affection for Hong Kong:
"You get past a certain point in life and you've accumulated a history in a place and so that's where you're from. Most of my memories and all my friends are here." (223)
I am a native of Hong Kong who never had the opportunity to live through the times Stewart had experienced. Growing up during the mid 1970s into the 1980s, when the fate of Hong Kong was put on the global spotlights, China prepared to take over the sovereignty in its glorious return to the embrace of motherland. Stewart had evoked the amazing fact that after the Bruits had reigned over 150 years, the English language (though taught in school and widely spoken) minimally penetrated the city. The Bruits had left behind its inveterate landmarks and traditions but only marginally affected the lives of average Hong Kongers.
The first part of the book, what seems to be some outrageous digression about a British journalist Dawn Stone's arriving at the colony in 1995, is to my minimal interest of the novel. While she did not contribute to the story until the very end, Lanchester has deftly employed her character to testify the near-snobbish lifestyle of modern Hong Kong cliques (the obsession of money, the swanking of wealth and expensive clothes, and the contention for success at the expense of stepping down others).
Tom Stewart reminded me the beguiling everyday, anecdotal life of Hong Kongers. He was taken by surprise by the ways in which he found the city a surprise. The exotic elements were what he expected and aggravated his desire to loosen the shackles of England. Like any foreign newcomers, he felt the need to conform and to fit in was crushing. Correspondences with Sister Maria through numerous letters had helped him adjust to the hustle-bustle. Inculcation of the Chinese language and literature gave him a lift in expanding his hotel business.
If one thing with which Stewart had nailed the place to the root, it would be the language and its speakers. Stewart deemed Cantonese (my native language) as one of the best languages for swearing because it was completely in harmony with the Cantonese characters (the bluntness, directness, money-mindedness, clannishness, worldliness, materialism, and argumentativeness). It truly hit home!
I unreservedly recommend this book to readers who want to explore the history and lives of Hong Kong in the twentieth century. Stewart's description of the city mirrored that to my grandfather. John Lanchester might have inadvertently mistaken Deep Water Bay for Repulse Bay, Magazine Gap Road for Old Peak Road, he truly knows the city where he spends a substantial amount of his life. He has presented his readers an unbiased view of Hong Kong: abound with its outward resplendency and underlying ignominy. After all Fragrant Harbor is a work of fiction, thoroughly and thoughtfully written.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Ameise1
This book must be read. It is the story of four people who have to deal with Hong Kong at different times and who also have a relationship with each other. The story stretches over several decades. It begins in the early 30's and continues until today. The main character experiences the whole time.
Even if this book is a fiction, it reflects the habits and life very realistically. I highly recommend this book.
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He travels to Hong Kong as a young man on the ship. On this crossing, he meets people who will accompany him all his life. In Hong Kong, he began to work at the Hotel Empire. He quickly learns the customs, the smear, the corruption and the political turnarounds between the colony and China, and what influence means. The time in this region during the WWII is very impressively described.Even if this book is a fiction, it reflects the habits and life very realistically. I highly recommend this book.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
I did not think this book was as captivating as either A Debt to Pleasure (one of my faves) or Mr. Phillips, and it was certainly different in both scope and setting, but something about it haunted me. It is a sweeping account of Hong Kong from the 1930s until today, told from the points of view of
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4 characters who lived there and whose lives were intertwined almost by fate. What I found most fascinating were the snapshots of expatriate colonial life in such an exotic place, poised between the capitalist West and Communist East. Definitely different. Show Less
LibraryThing member siri51
I liked the Hong Kong setting but got bored with the story - Tom Stewart makes some strange decisions about his life.
LibraryThing member bodachliath
I enjoyed this book hugely - a sort of history of Hong Kong since the 1930s told through the interlinked stories of 4 very different protagonists, full of rich descriptions and colourful characters, who reflect the changing nature of the society there. Lanchester also has a feel for language (not
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just English, since there is quite a lot on the nature of Cantonese). Parts of it also reminded me of J.G. Farrell's epic "the Singapore Grip", but Lanchester is a more sympathetic and less caustic narrator. Having read all four of John Lanchester's novels in the last few months, this one is probably the best. Show Less
LibraryThing member kikilon
This is a very talented man. Or a good biographist. His characters felt very, very real, and I could not detect the fiction in his tales, which made them so brilliant. The setting is fantastic, and he handles both periods and locations excellently. A very, very good book about the people that
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populate Hong Kong. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
A superb novel spanning seventy years in the history of Hong Kong, told through the differing perspectives of four principal characters who each recount their own story.
Tom Stewart's narrative forms the backbone of the novel and tells the story of a young man, born in Kent in 1913, who decides to
This idyll is interrupted by the onset of the Second World War and the Japanese invasion. Tom survives, and returns to Hong Kong where he becomes a prosperous hotelier.
Meanwhile Sister Maria has been working for the various Catholic missions in the colony and also in mainland China. Their paths continue to cross.
The third narrative is that of Dawn Stone, an ambitious British journalist who comes out to Hong Kong shortly before it returned to Chinese rule. She begins by investigating the origins of the wealth of the richest members of Hong Kong society, working on the premise that with such billionaires the interesting question is where the first millions come from (- the latter wealth is easy to generate in relatively open and legal ways, but how did they get their start-up capital?).
The fourth narrative is that of Matthew Ho, a thrusting young entrepreneur who is introduced early on when he sits next top Dawn Stone on her first flight to the colony.
This may all sound rather cumbersome and predictable. but Lanchester unites the various threads of the story with complete mastery, and evokes the reader's sympathy for all of his principals.
Tom Stewart's narrative forms the backbone of the novel and tells the story of a young man, born in Kent in 1913, who decides to
Show More
try his luck in Hong Kong. While on the voyage he meets two Eurasian nuns (Sisters Benedicta and Maria) and various men en route to their careers in the Far East. Following an argument between one of the other passengers and Sister Maria, a wager is held to test whether Tom can be taught the rudiments of Cantonese within the timespan of the voyage. This is to prove immensely useful for him when he lands in Hong Kong and gradually determines to spend the rest of his life there.This idyll is interrupted by the onset of the Second World War and the Japanese invasion. Tom survives, and returns to Hong Kong where he becomes a prosperous hotelier.
Meanwhile Sister Maria has been working for the various Catholic missions in the colony and also in mainland China. Their paths continue to cross.
The third narrative is that of Dawn Stone, an ambitious British journalist who comes out to Hong Kong shortly before it returned to Chinese rule. She begins by investigating the origins of the wealth of the richest members of Hong Kong society, working on the premise that with such billionaires the interesting question is where the first millions come from (- the latter wealth is easy to generate in relatively open and legal ways, but how did they get their start-up capital?).
The fourth narrative is that of Matthew Ho, a thrusting young entrepreneur who is introduced early on when he sits next top Dawn Stone on her first flight to the colony.
This may all sound rather cumbersome and predictable. but Lanchester unites the various threads of the story with complete mastery, and evokes the reader's sympathy for all of his principals.
Show Less
LibraryThing member MSarki
Too bland and regular for me. I admit, my tastes run more to the dark and intemperate. I do not know, again, what I was thinking by reserving this title from my local library. I have been disappointed in books more this week than any previous to my memory.
LibraryThing member bookczuk
Three separate story lines that wind and twist together...the back of the book talks about Tom Stewart, an English ex-pat, who first comes to China in the 1920's. And yes, the book starts with him in the prologue, but the first section with Dawn Stone too me by surprise. I got very caught up in the
Anyhow, I enjoyed the book, learned a bit, and liked the author's writing. I felt a bit cut short at the end, but not enough to not recommend this book to others. Will bring to our meetup on Sunday.
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second section, which jumps back to Stewart and brings in the fascinating character of Sister Maria. What an interesting relationship...Anyhow, I enjoyed the book, learned a bit, and liked the author's writing. I felt a bit cut short at the end, but not enough to not recommend this book to others. Will bring to our meetup on Sunday.
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LibraryThing member gocam
Engaging and accomplished portrait of the changing faces of Hong Kong - overlapping stories cover a modern 'Fragrant Harbour', all hustle and bustle, cash laden, stock heavy yet fancy freewheeling business amongst absolute squalor around the time of the handover, and an earlier incarnation from the
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mid 20th century - promise of a different kind in the air. I found the characters in the earlier stories more captivating, and this part of the book works more successfully - but, really, this is an excellent work of fiction that manages to weave a fairly involved story of an English emigre embroiled in a world and society changing fast - capturing the excitement of the time, the promise, drama and trauma of the war and cultural changes through to modern day. Show Less
LibraryThing member froxgirl
You start a book and are immediately enveloped in the story. And then you finish it and say, "OK, what did I miss?" You go back to particular sections and try again. Nope. Is it me or the author being so obtuse? This is one of quite a few novels I've read about Hong Kong natives and expats
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suffering so much during the beginning of WWII and the aftermath of the defeat of the Kuomintang, and the lead character, a young Brit trying to make his fortune, is quite engaging, as are most of the secondary people he meets. But there's an unclear surprise that both makes the tale too long and which I still am not sure I figured out correctly. Damn. Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
John Lanchester has, I believe, written four novels to date, all markedly different from each other in tone, and three of them ('The Debt to Pleasure', 'Capital' and this one) would all rank among my all time favourites.
'Fragrant Harbour' is a superb novel spanning seventy years in the history of
Tom Stewart's narrative forms the backbone of the novel and tells the story of a young man, born in Kent in 1913, who decides to try his luck in Hong Kong. While on the voyage he meets two Eurasian nuns (Sisters Benedicta and Maria) and various British men en route to pursue careers in the Far East. Following an argument between one of the other passengers and Sister Maria, a wager is held to test whether Tom can be taught the rudiments of Cantonese within the time span of the voyage. This is to prove immensely useful for him when he lands in Hong Kong and gradually determines to spend the rest of his life there. His idyll is interrupted by the onset of the Second World War and the Japanese invasion. Tom survives, and returns to Hong Kong where he becomes a prosperous hotelier.
Meanwhile Sister Maria has been working for the various Catholic missions spread throughout the colony and also in mainland China. Her path continues to cross with that of Tom.
The third character to provide a narrative is Dawn Stone, an ambitious British journalist who comes out to Hong Kong shortly before it returned to Chinese rule. She begins by investigating the origins of the wealth of the richest members of Hong Kong society, working on the premise that with such billionaires the interesting question is where the first millions come from (- the latter wealth is easy to generate in relatively open and legal ways, but how did they get their start-up capital?).
The fourth narrative is that of Matthew Ho, a thrusting young entrepreneur who makes a cameo appearance early on when he sits next top Dawn Stone on her first flight to the colony.
I recognise that this description might make it all sound rather cumbersome, not to say predictable. Lanchester, however, is a master storyteller and he succeeds in uniting all the various threads of the story with seamless ease, and evokes the reader's sympathy for all of his principal characters. He also manages to impart a huge amount about the history of Hong Kong, though this never impairs the flow of the novel.
'Fragrant Harbour' is a superb novel spanning seventy years in the history of
Show More
Hong Kong, told through the differing perspectives of four principal characters who each recount their own story. Tom Stewart's narrative forms the backbone of the novel and tells the story of a young man, born in Kent in 1913, who decides to try his luck in Hong Kong. While on the voyage he meets two Eurasian nuns (Sisters Benedicta and Maria) and various British men en route to pursue careers in the Far East. Following an argument between one of the other passengers and Sister Maria, a wager is held to test whether Tom can be taught the rudiments of Cantonese within the time span of the voyage. This is to prove immensely useful for him when he lands in Hong Kong and gradually determines to spend the rest of his life there. His idyll is interrupted by the onset of the Second World War and the Japanese invasion. Tom survives, and returns to Hong Kong where he becomes a prosperous hotelier.
Meanwhile Sister Maria has been working for the various Catholic missions spread throughout the colony and also in mainland China. Her path continues to cross with that of Tom.
The third character to provide a narrative is Dawn Stone, an ambitious British journalist who comes out to Hong Kong shortly before it returned to Chinese rule. She begins by investigating the origins of the wealth of the richest members of Hong Kong society, working on the premise that with such billionaires the interesting question is where the first millions come from (- the latter wealth is easy to generate in relatively open and legal ways, but how did they get their start-up capital?).
The fourth narrative is that of Matthew Ho, a thrusting young entrepreneur who makes a cameo appearance early on when he sits next top Dawn Stone on her first flight to the colony.
I recognise that this description might make it all sound rather cumbersome, not to say predictable. Lanchester, however, is a master storyteller and he succeeds in uniting all the various threads of the story with seamless ease, and evokes the reader's sympathy for all of his principal characters. He also manages to impart a huge amount about the history of Hong Kong, though this never impairs the flow of the novel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
John Lanchester has, I believe, written four novels to date, all markedly different from each other in tone, and three of them ('The Debt to Pleasure', 'Capital' and this one) would all rank among my all time favourites.
'Fragrant Harbour' is a superb novel spanning seventy years in the history of
Tom Stewart's narrative forms the backbone of the novel and tells the story of a young man, born in Kent in 1913, who decides to try his luck in Hong Kong. While on the voyage he meets two Eurasian nuns (Sisters Benedicta and Maria) and various British men en route to pursue careers in the Far East. Following an argument between one of the other passengers and Sister Maria, a wager is held to test whether Tom can be taught the rudiments of Cantonese within the time span of the voyage. This is to prove immensely useful for him when he lands in Hong Kong and gradually determines to spend the rest of his life there. His idyll is interrupted by the onset of the Second World War and the Japanese invasion. Tom survives, and returns to Hong Kong where he becomes a prosperous hotelier.
Meanwhile Sister Maria has been working for the various Catholic missions spread throughout the colony and also in mainland China. Her path continues to cross with that of Tom.
The third character to provide a narrative is Dawn Stone, an ambitious British journalist who comes out to Hong Kong shortly before it returned to Chinese rule. She begins by investigating the origins of the wealth of the richest members of Hong Kong society, working on the premise that with such billionaires the interesting question is where the first millions come from (- the latter wealth is easy to generate in relatively open and legal ways, but how did they get their start-up capital?).
The fourth narrative is that of Matthew Ho, a thrusting young entrepreneur who makes a cameo appearance early on when he sits next top Dawn Stone on her first flight to the colony.
I recognise that this description might make it all sound rather cumbersome, not to say predictable. Lanchester, however, is a master storyteller and he succeeds in uniting all the various threads of the story with seamless ease, and evokes the reader's sympathy for all of his principal characters. He also manages to impart a huge amount about the history of Hong Kong, though this never impairs the flow of the novel.
'Fragrant Harbour' is a superb novel spanning seventy years in the history of
Show More
Hong Kong, told through the differing perspectives of four principal characters who each recount their own story. Tom Stewart's narrative forms the backbone of the novel and tells the story of a young man, born in Kent in 1913, who decides to try his luck in Hong Kong. While on the voyage he meets two Eurasian nuns (Sisters Benedicta and Maria) and various British men en route to pursue careers in the Far East. Following an argument between one of the other passengers and Sister Maria, a wager is held to test whether Tom can be taught the rudiments of Cantonese within the time span of the voyage. This is to prove immensely useful for him when he lands in Hong Kong and gradually determines to spend the rest of his life there. His idyll is interrupted by the onset of the Second World War and the Japanese invasion. Tom survives, and returns to Hong Kong where he becomes a prosperous hotelier.
Meanwhile Sister Maria has been working for the various Catholic missions spread throughout the colony and also in mainland China. Her path continues to cross with that of Tom.
The third character to provide a narrative is Dawn Stone, an ambitious British journalist who comes out to Hong Kong shortly before it returned to Chinese rule. She begins by investigating the origins of the wealth of the richest members of Hong Kong society, working on the premise that with such billionaires the interesting question is where the first millions come from (- the latter wealth is easy to generate in relatively open and legal ways, but how did they get their start-up capital?).
The fourth narrative is that of Matthew Ho, a thrusting young entrepreneur who makes a cameo appearance early on when he sits next top Dawn Stone on her first flight to the colony.
I recognise that this description might make it all sound rather cumbersome, not to say predictable. Lanchester, however, is a master storyteller and he succeeds in uniting all the various threads of the story with seamless ease, and evokes the reader's sympathy for all of his principal characters. He also manages to impart a huge amount about the history of Hong Kong, though this never impairs the flow of the novel.
Show Less
LibraryThing member lindaspangler
Historical novel set mainly in Hong Kong during wwII but continues to modern times. Interesting. Kept my interest. Good but not great writing
LibraryThing member christinedux
Spanning seven decades, the tale moves from the intrigue and double-dealing of the 1930s, through the savagery of the Japanese occupation, to end in contemporary Hong Kong, crossroads of international trade and finance, and way station for laundering the dirty money of warlords, drug runners, and
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Chinese triads. Show Less
LibraryThing member lindaspangler
Well written, Interesting stop taking place in Hong Kong over a 70 year history
LibraryThing member Big_Bang_Gorilla
Although this novel stretches from Jazz Age England to the suburbs of Sydney at the turn of the century, it centers in Hong Kong, and, although the novel employs several narrators, it's usually a Hong Kong as seen by an English expat who manages hotels. The characters are drawn well enough, but
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their misadventures are rarely particularly interesting, and when they do have that potential, their sufferings are so underwritten that they carry little impact. The book does--finally--get around to an interesting plot twist around one hundred pages from the end, but that's largely wasted as the book's sputtering denouement takes us into the world of a young corporate executive trying to ferret out the labor cost overruns in his airconditioner factories. The book also contains an unwelcome whiff of trying to educate the reader on how business is done in Oriental cultures. This is a decent traditional epic novel which largely lacks the sparkle, wit, and insight of the author's earlier works Show Less
LibraryThing member kikianika
This is a very talented man. Or a good biographist. His characters felt very, very real, and I could not detect the fiction in his tales, which made them so brilliant. The setting is fantastic, and he handles both periods and locations excellently. A very, very good book about the people that
Show More
populate Hong Kong. Show Less
LibraryThing member zmagic69
Fantastic story that takes place in Hong Kong between 1930-2000
A wonderful idea of what Hong Kong was like in the 30’s and then during WWII all the way through the handover back to China.
The fictional story woven into this time is also fantastic.
This is a really good book.
A wonderful idea of what Hong Kong was like in the 30’s and then during WWII all the way through the handover back to China.
The fictional story woven into this time is also fantastic.
This is a really good book.
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
057121469X / 9780571214693
Physical description
320 p.; 4.96 inches
Pages
320