The Borrowed (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780802125880)

From award-winning Hong Kong writer Chan Ho-Kei, The Borrowed tells the story of Kwan Chun-dok, a Hong Kong detective whose career spans fifty years of the territory's history. A deductive powerhouse, Kwan becomes a legend in the force, nicknamed "the Eye of Heaven" by his awe-struck colleagues. Divided into six sections told in reverse chronological order--each of which covers an important case in Kwan's career and takes place at a pivotal moment in Hong Kong history from the 1960s to the present day--The Borrowed follows Kwan from his experiences during the Leftist Riot in 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; to 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, while Hong Kong increasingly resembles a police state. Along the way we meet Communist rioters, ultraviolent gangsters, stallholders at the city's many covered markets, 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--all coalescing into a dynamic portrait of this fascinating city.

Tracing a broad historical arc, The Borrowed reveals just how closely everything is connected, how history always 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.

Author: Chan Ho-Kei
ISBN-10: 0802125883
ISBN-13: 9780802125880
Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
Language: English
Published: 01/03/2017
Pages: 496
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.40w x 1.40d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2016
Publishers Weekly 11/21/2016
Booklist 12/01/2016 pg. 28