Book review: Tales of Two Cities plays it a bit too safe to be a truly engaging anthology

Tales of Two Cities

Hong Kong Writers Circle and the Singapore Writers’ Group

Ethos Books

The Hong Kong Writers Circle used to produce fine annual collections of local short stories. Now it has cut its home-grown content and teamed up with the Singapore Writers’ Group to produce Tales of Two Cities. This 320-page, Singapore-printed collaboration is carefully written, generously edited, and arguably a far better read than its recent predecessors. However, regular readers of the Circle’s anthologies might be disappointed that of the 23 pieces in Tales of Two Cities only 11 are local stories, compared to the 24 in the 2014 compilation, Another Hong Kong.

Tales of Two Cities could delight occasional visitors to Hong Kong and Singapore, however. The anthology’s best story is by S Mickey Lin, a founding co-editor of Singapore’s SWAG Literary Journal. He writes simply, beautifully, and in The Apex expertly racks the tension as a high-rise crane driver reflects on life, his superiors and what to do as the wind buffets his potentially lethal load over a crowd. Lin also refreshingly spares the adjectives, cuts ponderous descriptions of every movement, and gets on with the story.