A lovely debut novel.
There are two storylines – one for Lily, who English and Chinese, but doesn’t feel she belongs to either race, and one for Sook-Yin (Lily’s mother) who left Hong Kong as a young woman and tried to make a life for herself first in London, then in Hong Kong, but dies when Lily was five.
When Lily finds that she and her sister have been left a substantial amount of money by a mysterious benefactor, Lily goes to Hong Kong to find out why.
I felt that the story really came alive when Lily went to Hong Kong. The mystery subplot kept things moving. I loved that the handover of Hong Kong (from Britain to China) that happened in the background allowed small side discussions about the freedoms we take from granted in the West.
The title is absolute genius too.
The characters are interesting and flawed – Lily, who is clawing her way out of depression, and Sook-Yin who is a determined fighter but plagued by bad luck, are both vividly drawn.
I enjoyed this book a lot and expect to hear a lot more about it once it’s published.

I received an ARC from Netgalley (thank you). This is my honest review.

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