The Borrowed
Jan 2017 · Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
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496
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About this ebook
A legendary detective uncovers Hong Kong's darkest crimes: "An ambitious narrative brilliantly executed . . . What an achievement!" (John Burdett, author of Bangkok 8).
From award-winning author Chan Ho-kei, The Borrowed tells the story of Kwan Chun-dok, a detective who's worked in Hong Kong fifty years. Across six decades of Hong Kong's volatile history, the narrative follows Kwan through the Leftist Riot of 1967, when a bombing plot threatens many lives; the conflict between the HK Police and ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) in 1977; the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989; the Handover in 1997; and the present day of 2013, when Kwan is called on to solve his final case, the murder of a local billionaire, in a modern Hong Kong that increasingly resembles a police state.
Along the way we meet Communist rioters, ultra-violent gangsters, pop singers enmeshed in the high-stakes machinery of star-making, and a people always caught in the shifting balance of political power, whether in London or Beijing.
Tracing a broad historical arc, The Borrowed reveals just how closely everything is connected, how history repeats itself, and how we have come full circle to repeat the political upheaval and societal unrest of the past. It is a gripping, brilliantly constructed novel from a talented new voice.
From award-winning author Chan Ho-kei, The Borrowed tells the story of Kwan Chun-dok, a detective who's worked in Hong Kong fifty years. Across six decades of Hong Kong's volatile history, the narrative follows Kwan through the Leftist Riot of 1967, when a bombing plot threatens many lives; the conflict between the HK Police and ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) in 1977; the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989; the Handover in 1997; and the present day of 2013, when Kwan is called on to solve his final case, the murder of a local billionaire, in a modern Hong Kong that increasingly resembles a police state.
Along the way we meet Communist rioters, ultra-violent gangsters, pop singers enmeshed in the high-stakes machinery of star-making, and a people always caught in the shifting balance of political power, whether in London or Beijing.
Tracing a broad historical arc, The Borrowed reveals just how closely everything is connected, how history repeats itself, and how we have come full circle to repeat the political upheaval and societal unrest of the past. It is a gripping, brilliantly constructed novel from a talented new voice.
A legendary detective uncovers Hong Kong's darkest crimes: "An ambitious narrative brilliantly executed . . . What an achievement!" (John Burdett, author of Bangkok 8).
From award-winning author Chan Ho-kei, The Borrowed tells the story of Kwan Chun-dok, a detective who's worked in Hong Kong fi...
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About the author
Chan Ho-Kei was born and raised in Hong Kong. He has worked as software engineer, script writer, game designer and editor of comic magazines. His writing career started with the short story “The Murder Case of Jack and the Beanstalk,” which was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of Taiwan Award. He won the award the next year with “The Locked Room of Bluebeard.” Chan’s first novel, The Man Who Sold the World, won the Soji Shimada Mystery Award, the biggest mystery award in the Chinese-language world, and was published in five languages.
Chan Ho-Kei was born and raised in Hong Kong. He has worked as software engineer, script writer, game designer and editor of comic magazines. His writing career started with the short story “The Murder Case of Jack and the Beanstalk,” which was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of Taiwan Award....
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