https://www.scmp.com/rss/12847/feed James Kidd is a freelance writer based in Oxford, Britain. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Literary Review, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, The National, Time Out and The Jerusalem Post among others. He hosts the This Writing Life podcast (thiswritinglife.co.uk), featuring interviews with writers such as Hanya Yanagihara, David Mitchell, Amit Chaudhuri and Meena Kandasamy, and co-hosts Lit Bits (litbits.co.uk), named by The Observer as one of its top three literary podcasts. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Holidays and reading go together like suntans and sunscreen, flights and delays, passports and control. And while bookshops may be vanishing from high streets across the globe, they are still fixtures at most major airports. This sacred pairing of book and holiday is nothing new; it’s not even modern, according to British academic Anthony Bale. As he writes in his fascinating study of medieval holiday habits, A Travel Guide to the Middle Ages (2023): “To travel was to read, to read was to... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3270579/your-summer-reads-2024-sorted-beach-lounging-long-plane-rides?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3270579/your-summer-reads-2024-sorted-beach-lounging-long-plane-rides?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Jul 2024 00:00:12 +0000 The word of the year 2023, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is “hallucinate”. Thanks to artificial intelligence, the verb has evolved beyond the traditional definition in which humans sense things that are not there (from the Latin alucinatus, “to stray in the mind”). Today’s hallucinations include a machine’s capacity to generate (or dare we say invent) false information. As an example, Cambridge Dictionary mentions two American lawyers at Levidow, Levidow & Oberman who were fined... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3246386/best-books-2023-twist-elon-musk-biography-and-prince-harrys-spare-hong-kong-poetry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3246386/best-books-2023-twist-elon-musk-biography-and-prince-harrys-spare-hong-kong-poetry?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Dec 2023 05:15:08 +0000 In any other year, there would have been a long line of candidates competing for 2022’s biggest literary story. Robert “J.K. Rowling” Galbraith returned with The Ink Black Heart (Sphere, 2022), and Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing (Corsair, 2019) was given a substantial second wind courtesy of Reese Witherspoon’s movie adaptation. Jenny Han’s “The Summer I Turned Pretty” trilogy (Penguin, 2010-2012) received a similar commercial boost with Amazon’s popular series. The Bullet that Missed... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3203553/2022-books-colleen-hoovers-bestselling-year-bob-dylan-and-bono-memoirs-self-help-queen-brene-brown?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3203553/2022-books-colleen-hoovers-bestselling-year-bob-dylan-and-bono-memoirs-self-help-queen-brene-brown?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 18 Dec 2022 11:08:21 +0000 When I first met Tess Gerritsen, back in 2008, she was making a name for herself as one of America’s most promising crime writers. She had built a respectable following among readers and critics with her six novels starring Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles: 2005’s Vanish won the prestigious Nero award; its follow-up, The Mephisto Club (2006), made bestseller lists around the world. But back then, Rizzoli and Isles were only bit part players in a conversation dominated, firstly, by Gerritsen’s... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3189603/crime-writer-tess-gerritsen-listen-me-her-new-rizzoli?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3189603/crime-writer-tess-gerritsen-listen-me-her-new-rizzoli?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Aug 2022 11:15:10 +0000 “It’s a really weird time to be alive.” Meng Jin could be talking about any number of mind-boggling global crises right now. As it happens, the acclaimed author of Little Gods (2020) has just finished talking about her brushes with Covid-19. The 33-year-old, who was born in Shanghai, has spent much of the past two years in her adopted hometown of San Francisco, which she describes as one of the most Covid-cautious cities in America. By the time the virus did catch up with her, Jin was working at... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3187009/one-most-exciting-literary-talents-chinese-american?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3187009/one-most-exciting-literary-talents-chinese-american?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 31 Jul 2022 11:15:12 +0000 A few weeks ago, I found myself listening to Climate of Change, a new podcast in which Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett casts an eye over the latest in green energy innovation with help from “dear old friend” and clean-technology entrepreneur Danny Kennedy. The series promised stories that “will, hopefully, give you hope”. It began, however, with Blanchett’s familiar velvety voice confessing her almost daily fear of “being swept away on this tide of bad news”. Blanchett named a few... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3185362/summer-reads-2022-8-nonfiction-and-fiction-books?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3185362/summer-reads-2022-8-nonfiction-and-fiction-books?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Jul 2022 11:15:22 +0000 Secret Pandemic: The Search for Connection in a Lonely World by Simone Heng, pub. Lioncrest Publishing If you have ever seen Simone Heng on television, you might have thought she was the most confident human on Earth. Whether she was working for HBO or CNN, presenting a show about travel or rock music, she made broadcasting seem effortless and fun. Which only goes to show that appearances can be deceptive. “I was hiding in plain sight,” the 38-year-old says from her elegant home in Singapore. “I... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3182995/feminist-pioneers-tough-love-her-daughter-and-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3182995/feminist-pioneers-tough-love-her-daughter-and-how?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 26 Jun 2022 03:15:21 +0000 Translating Myself and Others by Jhumpa Lahiri, pub. Princeton University Press When Jhumpa Lahiri announced her decision, in 2015, to write in Italian rather than English, she made headlines around the world. In an interview with Post Magazine, Lahiri recalled accusations of foolishness and frivolity. One of the essays (“Why Italian?”) collected in Translating Myself and Others adds “resistance, diffi­dence, and doubts” to the list of insults. Seven years later, the fuss still sounds... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3181142/jhumpa-lahiri-american-writer-her-italian-years-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3181142/jhumpa-lahiri-american-writer-her-italian-years-and?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Jun 2022 09:15:17 +0000 Burning Questions by Margaret Atwood, pub. Doubleday Is there anything Margaret Atwood can’t do, at least as a writer? Her career, which now spans over 60 years, is dominated by her 17 novels, most famously The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Cat’s Eye (1988) and The Testaments (2019), but Atwood began her writing life as a poet (with Double Persephone; 1961), and has published almost as many volumes as novels. Add in graphic novels and children’s books, and all that remains for her to do is write a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3172855/burning-questions-margaret-atwoods-third-non-fiction?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3172855/burning-questions-margaret-atwoods-third-non-fiction?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 02 Apr 2022 11:15:12 +0000 Love Marriage by Monica Ali pub. Scribner Love Marriage is the fifth novel in 19 years by British writer Monica Ali. She has done well to get this far. Ali will probably always be best known for Brick Lane, her 2003 debut, which sold like a blockbuster and won praise and prize nominations like a masterpiece. Four years later, it was turned into the obligatory over-hasty and underwhelming movie. Ali herself became a star, fought over by critics as venerable as Germaine Greer and Salman Rushdie,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3170978/love-marriage-novel-we-need-world-falling-apart-brick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3170978/love-marriage-novel-we-need-world-falling-apart-brick?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Mar 2022 11:15:13 +0000 Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, pub. Harper Voyager “When you have a dream that you want very much, sometimes you feel scared to reach for it. Because if it doesn’t happen, it is very crushing. There is a special type of pain involved with that.” Sue Lynn Tan is describing the long, bumpy road that culminated in the publication of her excellent first novel, Daughter of the Moon Goddess. Like all aspiring writers, Tan was plagued by insecurity and discouraged by rejection. But if... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3162652/daughter-moon-goddess-author-sue-lynn-tan-her?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3162652/daughter-moon-goddess-author-sue-lynn-tan-her?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Jan 2022 11:15:09 +0000 “And you know what this means?” said Mr Fox. “It means none of us need ever go out into the open again!” Fantastic Mr Fox (1970), Roald Dahl Of the countless questions that have been raised by the Covid-19 pandemic over the past two years, what to read must rank as one of the more trivial. Until, that is, you find yourself looking around for the perfect book to get you through a day in lockdown. What do human beings read (or watch or listen to for that matter) while people across the world,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3159066/how-quarantine-killed-romeo-and-juliet-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3159066/how-quarantine-killed-romeo-and-juliet-covid-19?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 12 Dec 2021 08:15:18 +0000 It’s a familiar complaint. The real meaning of Christmas has been lost in an annual frenzy of consumerism and overconsumption. But move past the usual lamentations of “keeping Christ in Christmas”, think of a period far longer than any Boxing Day mania and see the 12 days of Christmas through a broader lens. Here, with a bit of creative licence, we cherry-pick our own dozen, starting on a cold Christmas Eve in the 10th century… 24th December On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3159172/12-days-christmas-history-you-dont-hear-sung?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3159172/12-days-christmas-history-you-dont-hear-sung?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Dec 2021 20:15:18 +0000 She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan, pub. Tor Books Writers respond in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways to that classic question: where did you get the idea for your latest novel? But few responses can top the one offered by Shelley Parker-Chan about her brilliant debut, She Who Became the Sun. “I was looking for a big sweeping story with high stakes and monks,” she announces from her home in Melbourne, Australia. “I am weirdly obsessed with monks. You are going to ask why?” It... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3156555/keanu-reeves-was-all-we-had-literary-fantasy-author?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3156555/keanu-reeves-was-all-we-had-literary-fantasy-author?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 20 Nov 2021 05:15:08 +0000 Julia and the Shark, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, pub. Orion Children’s Books When Kiran Millwood Hargrave appears on November 14 at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, the audience could be forgiven for wondering which writer will turn up. Will it be the bestselling author of The Mercies, her prize-winning debut 2020 novel for adults? Or Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the prize-winning poet? Or Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the playwright? Or Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the chart-topping author of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3155963/childrens-book-julia-and-shark-harrowing-moving?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3155963/childrens-book-julia-and-shark-harrowing-moving?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 13 Nov 2021 11:26:14 +0000 Seventy-four sessions. One hundred authors and speakers. Ten days of talks, readings, discussion, workshops and even guided tours. The Hong Kong International Literary Festival (HKILF) is bigger and more robust than ever, which is no mean achievement after the disruptions of the past year. Catherine Platt, the festival’s executive director, has placed the idea of revival and recovery centre stage in a programme organised around themes of wellness, community and trauma. “We wanted to celebrate... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3153864/mental-health-theme-2021-hong-kong-international?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3153864/mental-health-theme-2021-hong-kong-international?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 30 Oct 2021 05:15:24 +0000 The Sisters Mao by Gavin McCrea, pub. Scribe Gavin McCrea had literally just finished work on his excellent second novel, The Sisters Mao, when he was viciously attacked in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland. In February 2020, the much-heralded author of Mrs Engels (2015) had just left the university library, and had phoned his uncle to tell him the good news about completing the book. A gang of teenagers began shouting homophobic insults, then assaulted McCrea, breaking his nose and cheek. “It was... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3149255/more-he-read-about-jiang-qing-mao-zedongs-wife-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3149255/more-he-read-about-jiang-qing-mao-zedongs-wife-more?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 18 Sep 2021 08:15:20 +0000 What is the perfect summer entertainment when summer falls – again – in the middle of a seemingly never-ending pandemic? One option is to reach, as many of us have, for the most escapist stories imaginable, anything without illness, plagues, quarantines, vaccination or home-schooling. Then again, more than a few of us went the other way – Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion (2011) was one of the most streamed films of 2020. Bearing these extremes in mind, here are a variety of recent books, in... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3141221/summer-books-2021-all-ages-chinese-fantasy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3141221/summer-books-2021-all-ages-chinese-fantasy?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Jul 2021 10:15:08 +0000 Languages of Truth by Salman Rushdie, pub. Jonathan Cape The 21st century essay collection feels like one of publishing’s weirder propositions. In one corner is the necessarily occasional content (articles written at different times about different things for different reasons); in the other is the book itself, which hopes to unify this content into a coherent, satisfying whole. At their best, these anthologies curate an author’s scattered non-fiction output into a compact fusion of reportage,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3140739/salman-rushdies-languages-truth-his-second-non?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3140739/salman-rushdies-languages-truth-his-second-non?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 12 Jul 2021 11:45:09 +0000 Hard Like Water by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas, pub. Grove Press Hard Like Water is a novel about love and revolution. At least, this is a short and simple summary. As is hinted by the title’s Taoist paradox, Yan Lianke’s story spins love and revolution into ever-shifting circles that are, by turns, intimate and constructive, joyful and erotic, while at others seem contradictory and oppositional, deceptive and destructive. Yan isn’t the first writer to pair the passions that fire... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3139671/yan-liankes-cultural-revolution-novel-love-and-hate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3139671/yan-liankes-cultural-revolution-novel-love-and-hate?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Jul 2021 05:15:23 +0000 Jonathan Kos-Read has built a successful life by making seemingly unpredictable decisions. In 1997, he swapped New York for Beijing, despite knowing hardly any Mandarin, even fewer people and with little in the way of a plan. He auditioned for a low-budget movie, Mei Shi Zhao Shi (Looking for Trouble), on the strength of an advertisement in an English-language newspaper and a teenage love of acting. From such random choices has grown fame. Known across mainland China as Cao Cao, Kos-Read is “by... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3135869/chinas-leading-foreign-actor-his-first-book-eunuch?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3135869/chinas-leading-foreign-actor-his-first-book-eunuch?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Jun 2021 21:15:08 +0000 When Sue Cheung was growing up in England during the 1980s, she believed her family was the only one in the entire world that lived in a Chinese restaurant. “Because we didn’t have the internet back then, we all thought we were alone,” she says. “We all thought we were living in these takeaways and experiencing these kinds of lives all on our own.” The way Cheung tells it, her childhood would have been isolated even with the benefit of 21st century social media. Her parents emigrated to England... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3128737/chinglish-sue-cheung-revisits-racism-trauma-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3128737/chinglish-sue-cheung-revisits-racism-trauma-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Apr 2021 06:15:05 +0000 Land of Big Numbersby Te-Ping ChenMariner Books If there were a prize for the best book title describing 21st century China, Land of Big Numbers would be in the running. Those four words encapsulate the country’s dizzying scale, ambition and success, and by implication the challenge facing anyone trying to capture its infinite variety. Just in case you are tempted to use the phrase for yourself, Land of Big Numbers is already taken. Twice. The Wall Street Journal’s Te-Ping Chen has used it as... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3127769/land-big-numbers-writer-te-ping-chen-tries-make-sense?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3127769/land-big-numbers-writer-te-ping-chen-tries-make-sense?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Apr 2021 11:15:11 +0000 A whirlwind of literary inspiration will transport book lovers around the globe at the start of the Year of the Ox. On Friday, the first day of Lunar New Year festivities, “Literature Live Around the World”, co-sponsored by the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, will usher in an extraordinary day of writing, reading and conversation in 12 hours, give or take. The event, which begins in Norway at 8pm Hong Kong time, is a 12-nation extravaganza that unites 12 international book festivals... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3121441/book-lovers-enjoy-virtual-festival-writing-reading-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3121441/book-lovers-enjoy-virtual-festival-writing-reading-and?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Feb 2021 10:15:16 +0000 One of the questions my six-year-old daughter has begun to ask concerns Santa Claus. How does he manage to deliver all those presents to the world’s children in a single night? Luckily, she already knows the answer: a combination of magic reindeer, an ability to scale the insides of chimneys at warp speed and a deft negotiation of international time zones. Another new question this Christmas is: do people across the world celebrate Christmas in the same way? Right now, she thinks eight billion... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3113967/how-do-people-celebrate-christmas-and-festive?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3113967/how-do-people-celebrate-christmas-and-festive?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 24 Dec 2020 02:50:18 +0000 If one literary genre has defined the 21st century so far, it is surely the psychological thriller. This owes a great deal to blockbusters such as Gone Girl (2012), by Gillian Flynn, and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train (2015), whose vast global sales were quickly followed by mildly disappointing Hollywood films. These inspired a host of popular imitators, which as well as shamelessly plugging the word “Girl” into their titles, followed a similar formula: 1 Suspenseful stories packed with... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3114319/what-does-our-appetite-psychological-thrillers-say?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3114319/what-does-our-appetite-psychological-thrillers-say?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 22 Dec 2020 20:15:16 +0000 History will remember 2020 as a year in which everything was touched by the Covid-19 pandemic. The festive season is no exception, illustrated by the escalating arguments between those demanding Christmas as usual and those urging caution about congregating with family and friends. The most urgent question of all – how Covid-19 will affect Santa Claus – has already been asked and answered by Dr Anthony Fauci. “Santa is exempt from this because Santa, of all the good qualities, has a lot of good... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3113577/christmas-time-coronavirus-how-dickens-classic-tales?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3113577/christmas-time-coronavirus-how-dickens-classic-tales?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:15:06 +0000 This has been quite a year for C Pam Zhang. In April she released her debut novel, How Much of These Hills is Gold. Set towards the end of the American gold rush, the story follows two young Chinese siblings, Lucy and Sam, as they navigate hostile terrain and even more hostile white Americans on a quest to bury their recently dead father. Having earned glowing reviews, Zhang was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. “[It was] a huge honour, a validation and, as all prizes are, a stroke of luck,”... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3110027/how-much-these-hills-gold-c-pam-zhangs-novel-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3110027/how-much-these-hills-gold-c-pam-zhangs-novel-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 16 Nov 2020 08:15:16 +0000 All in all, it has been a very Jeffrey Wasserstrom kind of year. Hardly a week has gone by in which global headlines have not seemed like an extension of his own interests as a historian, scholar and one of the West’s leading sinologists. Wasserstrom’s profile page at the University of California, Irvine (where he is Chancellor’s Professor of History) lists those interests as “China, Protest, Globalization, Gender, Urban”. Very 2020. How have decades of research into youth protest move­ments... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3108550/future-hong-kong-uncertain-and-unpredictable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3108550/future-hong-kong-uncertain-and-unpredictable?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 07 Nov 2020 03:15:15 +0000 “There is zero spontaneity in life.” Jhumpa Lahiri is telling me about her disorienting return to work at Princeton Uni­versity, where the acclaimed writer is director and professor of creative writing. “We teach everything online, which is strange and frustrating and exhausting. We have no choice.” A weekly coronavirus test is mandatory for anyone spending more than eight hours on campus, in New Jersey, in the United States. Lahiri can’t go anywhere without being checked in and out. “They want... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3107408/author-jhumpa-lahiri-why-writing-italian-falling-love?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3107408/author-jhumpa-lahiri-why-writing-italian-falling-love?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 31 Oct 2020 03:15:11 +0000 The Lonely Century by Noreena Hertz, Sceptre, 3.5/5 stars Are you feeling lonely? If you’re reading this in Hong Kong, there is a 50 per cent chance the answer is yes. If you’re at work in China, the odds are rather better than 2:1. Never fear. You might be lonely, but you are not alone. Forty per cent of office workers across the globe say they feel much the same. In Britain, the figure is as high as 60 per cent. Of course, statistics only go so far, although it is mind-boggling to learn that... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3105598/what-you-should-know-about-loneliness-and-how?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3105598/what-you-should-know-about-loneliness-and-how?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 16 Oct 2020 20:15:16 +0000 “I might not particularly love fashion, but I’d sure rather do something ‘fun’ all day long than get sucked into a more boring job.” So says Andrea Sachs, heroine of Lauren Weisberger’s hit novel The Devil Wears Prada. Inspired by Weisberger’s real-life experiences as personal assistant to American Vogueeditor, Anna Wintour, Andrea begins working at glossy, Vogue-alike Runway magazine while preparing for her proper career, at The New Yorker. Both Weisberger’s 2003 novel and the subsequent movie... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3101728/fashion-fiction-sherlock-holmes-deerstalker-patrick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3101728/fashion-fiction-sherlock-holmes-deerstalker-patrick?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 20 Sep 2020 08:45:17 +0000 More than 11.6 million YouTube views can’t be wrong. That’s how many people have watched a comedy sketch posted in July by Malaysian stand-up comedian Nigel Ng. “It’s been a crazy month,” Ng tells the Post from his London home. “I’m not complaining. I feel really lucky to get this type of success. People say this virality is the result of hard work, but it’s also a lot of luck. I’m just super grateful.” Ng, 29, appears in the video as Uncle Roger, his outraged and outrageously funny alter ego.... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3098603/malaysian-comedian-behind-viral-uncle-roger-video-youtube?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3098603/malaysian-comedian-behind-viral-uncle-roger-video-youtube?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Aug 2020 23:45:13 +0000 The Bird in the Bamboo Cage by Hazel Gaynor, HarperCollins. 4/5 stars Hazel Gaynor’s speciality is in turning well-known historical mysteries and crises into fiction. Her debut, The Girl Who Came Home (2014), was set on the Titanic, and 2017’s The Cottingley Secret fictional­ised the famous fake photographs of fairies that obsessed Arthur Conan Doyle among countless others. The Bird in the Bamboo Cage, her sixth novel, is also inspired by events past. The action begins in December 1941 at the... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3098135/bird-bamboo-cage-hazel-gaynors-novel-explores?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3098135/bird-bamboo-cage-hazel-gaynors-novel-explores?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 24 Aug 2020 03:15:14 +0000 The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, Oneworld. 4/5 stars The Mountains Sing is the first novel by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, one of Vietnam’s leading poets, writers and translators. The story distils the past 80 years of her homeland’s fraught history into the volatile fortunes of the Tran family. This idea is embodied by our two narrators. The first is Tran Dieu Lan, whom we first find walking around bomb craters in the streets of 1970s Hanoi. Her life’s mission is to protect granddaughter... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3096128/80-years-vietnams-fraught-history-distilled-poets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3096128/80-years-vietnams-fraught-history-distilled-poets?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 08 Aug 2020 04:45:06 +0000 Must I Go by Yiyun Li Hamish Hamilton 4/5 stars “Posterity, take notice!” So begins Must I Go, the fourth novel by acclaimed Beijing-born novelist Yiyun Li. The opening is a surprise, partly because Li has never seemed the sort to make bold proclamations about the lasting value of her art. If I had to choose a single word to encapsulate her corpus it would be “modest” – and I mean that in the best way. From her first story collection, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005), Li’s writing has... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3094583/yiyun-lis-must-i-go-old-woman-tries-solve-unsolvable?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3094583/yiyun-lis-must-i-go-old-woman-tries-solve-unsolvable?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Jul 2020 21:15:05 +0000 In a typical year, choosing the perfect books for the summer holidays goes something like this: cram a few paperbacks in the suitcase; load up the e-reader; and download some audiobooks. For last-minute ideas, browse an airport bookshop before boarding the plane. Given that 2020 is anything but typical, whether in terms of holidays, airports or reading itself, we thought a special list might be needed to free the mind from whatever lockdown you are currently experiencing. With most of us rooted... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3092308/paul-theroux-poet-basho-stories-about-journeys-real?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3092308/paul-theroux-poet-basho-stories-about-journeys-real?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 Jul 2020 10:00:14 +0000 Of Ants and Dinosaurs by Cixin Liu (translated by Elizabeth Hanlon), pub. Head of Zeus. 3.5/5 stars If you’re still searching for that perfect pandemic novel, you could do worse than Cixin Liu’s Ball Lightning (2004 in Chinese; 2018 the English translation), in which a cosmically generated illness devastates Earth’s adult population, leaving the planet in the hands of a young, inexperienced generation. The latest book by the Chinese sci-fi giant seems less concerned with humanity’s future than... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3085058/ants-and-dinosaurs-metaphor-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3085058/ants-and-dinosaurs-metaphor-china-and-us?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 21 May 2020 14:00:16 +0000 If It Bleeds by Stephen King Hodder & Stoughton 4/5 stars Sifting through works of fiction for real-life parallels can be a treacherous business. Never more so than when the work of fiction in question teases with real-life promise. Take “Rat”, the enjoyable concluding short story in Stephen King’s new collection, If It Bleeds. Its hero, Drew Larson, is a writer like his creator. But while King has published enough books to fill his own store, Drew has always found that story ideas came “when... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3083244/if-it-bleeds-stephen-kings-new-collection-short?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3083244/if-it-bleeds-stephen-kings-new-collection-short?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 07 May 2020 14:00:10 +0000 Over the past few weeks, as the coronavirus pandemic has driven the world into lockdown, I have found myself thinking about things I take for granted. About hand­washing. About the importance of doctors, nurses and hospital porters, but also post­men, refuse collectors and supermarket workers. About toilet paper. About how little the West pays attention to events in Asia. About whether talking on Zoom is better than by phone. But the everyday activity that has obsessed me the most is... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3081191/together-and-alone-how-reading-helping-unite?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3081191/together-and-alone-how-reading-helping-unite?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 24 Apr 2020 11:00:15 +0000 The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel 4th Estate 4/5 stars Every generation probably feels its history is unique. The best historical fiction and non-fiction might be said to take issue with such pride, reminding us that even as we proclaim ourselves uniquely modern and completely special, we are nothing of the sort. Take the scene that opens Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror & the Light: the beheading of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII and England’s queen. “The morning’s circumstances are... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3074881/mirror-light-fitting-conclusion-hilary-mantels-epic?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3074881/mirror-light-fitting-conclusion-hilary-mantels-epic?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Mar 2020 22:00:13 +0000 Three Brothers by Yan Lianke Chatto & Windus 4.5/5 stars Yan Lianke is no stranger to writing about himself. He appeared, in subtly altered form, in his 2018 novel, The Day the Sun Died . His new book, Three Brothers, is a memoir, although on more than one occasion readers might find themselves wondering what separates Yan’s fiction from his non-fiction. The germ of the idea, as he reveals in a preface, was a sudden realisation in 2007 “that four men in my father’s generation – which included... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3065106/yan-liankes-three-brothers-honours-his-family-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3065106/yan-liankes-three-brothers-honours-his-family-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Mar 2020 05:00:06 +0000 Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo Scribner 4/5 stars First published in 2016, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 became a phenomenon in South Korea and made its author, Cho Nam-joo,a heroine of the #MeToo movement. For that, she owes everything to her titular heroine, whose name is Korea’s equivalent of Jane Doe. The story opens near the end, in autumn 2015, when Kim is 33 – “or thirty-four in Korean age”. Married three years earlier, to Dae-hyun, she became a mother the year before. On the morning of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3065111/kim-jiyoung-born-1982-book-became-symbol-south-koreas?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3065111/kim-jiyoung-born-1982-book-became-symbol-south-koreas?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 06 Mar 2020 14:00:12 +0000 Little Gods by Meng Jin Custom House 4/5 stars Little Gods is the impressive first novel by Meng Jin, born in Shanghai, now resident in San Francisco. Like many impressive debuts, it feels deeply personal and relentlessly ambitious. The most obviously personal aspects are personified by Liya, whose story broadly resembles that of her creator. Born in Shanghai (or so she thinks) on June 4, 1989, Liya relocates to America as a child with her mother, Su Lan, a brilliant physicist who has won a... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3050456/meng-jins-debut-novel-little-gods-not-your-typical?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3050456/meng-jins-debut-novel-little-gods-not-your-typical?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 15 Feb 2020 12:00:12 +0000 Agency by William Gibson Penguin Viking 4/5 stars There is a chapter near the middle of Agency, William Gibson’s 12th novel and a companion to 2014’s The Peripheral, titled “Still Life with Lawyers”. It opens with a misunderstanding between Wilf Netherton – who runs a London-based PR firm specialising in crisis manage­ment – and our de facto heroine, Verity Jane, a semi-famous Silicon Valley habitué, often referred to as the “app-whisperer”. Long story short: Agency’s drama is driven by a crisis... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3047152/william-gibsons-apocalyptic-new-novel-agency-imagines?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3047152/william-gibsons-apocalyptic-new-novel-agency-imagines?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Jan 2020 12:30:05 +0000 When American journalist Megan Stack moved to China, in 2010, she knew her life was at a crossroads. Having spent the previous decade working as a foreign correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, “I was at a point when I was burned out on travelling and reporting,” she says, speaking from yet another “new” home in Singapore. Stack’s last posting, in Russia, had followed a five-year spell covering the Middle East – “a huge beat” she notes with understatement, adding that she had worked in every... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3046211/emotional-and-economic-ties-between-mothers-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3046211/emotional-and-economic-ties-between-mothers-and?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 19 Jan 2020 21:00:14 +0000 After 2019’s convincing impersonation of a trailer for the apocalypse, 2020 starts in refreshingly optimistic, if familiar fashion – in the book world at least. This year’s preview can begin with almost the same words as last year’s: “First up among early waking giants is Jin Yong, whose epic wuxia novels made him arguably the world’s most popular novelist of the past 30 years.” A Bond Undone , part two of Anna Holmwood’s superb translation of the Legends of the Condor Heroes’ series, was one of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3044499/asian-authors-have-written-some-most-anticipated?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3044499/asian-authors-have-written-some-most-anticipated?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Jan 2020 14:00:11 +0000 The end of 2019 offers a double opportunity to review both a year and a decade in books. Covering 12 months is hard enough in our hyperspeed and atomised hi-tech age: what chance for 120? In many ways, this hyperspeed, atomised hi-tech age is the literary story of the past 10 years. Not only are books competing with the increasingly seductive and effortless attractions of the internet, gaming and the seemingly infinite supply of bingeworthy television shows, films and albums streamed straight... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3042776/margaret-atwood-hanya-yanagihara-best-books-2010s?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3042776/margaret-atwood-hanya-yanagihara-best-books-2010s?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Dec 2019 14:00:14 +0000 Blood Heir by Amélie Wen Zhao Harper Voyager 3/5 stars The debut novel by 26-year-old, Beijing-born Amélie Wen Zhao is more or less a young adult fantasy, starring Anastacya Mikhailov, daughter of the Cyrilian emperor. Enveloped in multiple plots, it comes as little surprise when the ruler is murdered. What proves more shocking is that Anastacya (Ana) is the prime suspect. Fleeing for her life, she realises the only way to clear her name is to find the real killer. This quest results in an... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3041572/blood-heir-amelie-wen-zhaos-debut-pulled-being-racist?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3041572/blood-heir-amelie-wen-zhaos-debut-pulled-being-racist?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 12 Dec 2019 14:00:10 +0000 The business school at the Chinese University of Hong Kong has not perhaps inspired many poets. But when Mary Jean Chan describes her journey to becoming one of the world’s most promising and admired young writers, she names her decision to leave the business school as a pivotal moment. “It was desperation really,” she says. “I was in a very bad place bordering on depression. My parents saw that and knew something had to change.” Talking to 29-year-old Chan a decade later, in her adopted home... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3040692/how-hong-kong-poet-mary-jean-chan-wowing-britains?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/books/article/3040692/how-hong-kong-poet-mary-jean-chan-wowing-britains?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 05 Dec 2019 10:15:12 +0000