The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Published Today: Little Aunt Crane by Geling Yan

About the book: In the last days of World War Two, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria has collapsed. As the Chinese move in, the elders of the Japanese settler village of Sakito decide to preserve their honour by killing all the villagers in an act of mass suicide. Only 16-year-old Tatsuru escapes. But Tatsuru’s trials have just begun, and she falls into the hands of human traffickers. She is sold to a wealthy Chinese family, where she becomes Duohe – the clandestine second wife to their only son, and the secret bearer of his children. Against all odds, Duohe and the first wife Xiaohuan put aside their differences and form an unlikely friendship, united by the unshakeable bonds of motherhood and family. Spanning several tumultuous decades of Mao’s rule, Little Aunt Crane is a novel about love, overcoming adversity, and how humanity endures in the most unlikely of circumstances.

500 Words From Kalyan Lahiri

500 Words From...is a series of guest posts from Asia-based authors published by Asia-based, or Asia-focussed, publishing houses, in which they talk about their latest books. Here Kolkata-native Kalyan Lahiri, talks about his debut novel, The Kolkata Conundrum, which introduces detective Orko Deb. It is published by Hong Kong-based Crime WavePress.

This Week in Asian Review of Books

See the Asian Review of Books for ever-interesting discussion. Here are links to its newest reviews, excerpts, letters, essays, listings, news items, and round ups:

November 19: Launch of Eight Hong Kong Poets and latest ARB Quarterly a listing of interest to readers in Hong Kong
Outside reading: links to essays and articles on books, politics and culture 
China 1945: Mao’s Revolution and America’s Fateful Choice by Richard Bernstein reviewed by Tim O’Connell
The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories by Anthony Marra reviewed by Peter Gordon

The Sunday Post

A rojak* of items that caught my eye this week…

Just Quickly...

Click here for a very nice piece by Elizabeth Roberts, about my novel Olivia & Sophia, from the UK Telegraph.

Indie Spotlight:John Hudspith

Indie Spotlight is our monthly column on self-publishing. This month our regular columnist, Siobhan Daiko, who is herself an indie author, interviews her UK-based editor, John Hudspith, about his work.

As well as editing manuscripts, John also offers advice on such topics as overcoming writer’s block, creating an epic, and the eBook eruption - he is a one-man, one-stop service for indie authors wherever they live.  Meanwhile, he too is an indie author. His first novel, Kimi's Secret won a highly coveted YouWriteOn book of the year award in 2013. The second novel in his Kimi series, Kimi’s Fear, is out now.