‘On Borrowed Time is set in Hong Kong and Shanghai over the period 1996/1997 - including the handover of Hong Kong to China. The novel explores the choices that people have to make; in particular between doing what is easy and what is right.
In Hong Kong Emma Janssen discovers the truth behind the death of her brother four years earlier. Meanwhile, in Shanghai, a PhD student meets a woman with an unusual degree of interest in his research. These storylines converge at the time of the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, and Emma finds that she has to choose between revenge or the future happiness and safety of both herself and those close to her.
While being a work of fiction, On Borrowed Time is rooted in the author's own experiences of living and working in Hong Kong from 1993 to 2010, in particular the final years of British rule and the transfer of sovereignty back to China.’
This was one of those delightful reads where you begin with zero knowledge of the author and no expectations of the story but ending up by being utterly absorbed and engaged with the whole thing.
Tantalised by an enigmatic prologue that gave just enough information for the reader’s curiosity to be piqued from start to finish the narrative was compelling. And like a vessel in a fast flowing current urged the reader forward to unravel the intricacies of the plot and see where these tangled webs might lead.
The story takes place in that twilight time just before Hong Kong was returned to China and the author’s detailed knowledge of both countries and their ideologies offered a rich and plausible backdrop to the human interest. A cluster of protagonists - Sam, Emma, Susan, Kwok-Wah, caught in their respective locations of Shanghai and Hong Kong before their lives fragment in the concluding parts of the book. If Hong Kong returned to China then so did our characters return to their previous locations and their previous selves, maybe. For all have pasts that may not instantly be obvious or readily revealed, with the exception perhaps of dear Kwok Wah, the innocent bystander in all this. They are all well defined characters who are easy to relate to and engage with, flawed and floundering sometimes in the craziness of the world, trying to make sense of all they encounter and, with more difficulty, trying to make the ‘right’ choices. Right for themselves? Or right for others?
It’s a complex plot with political undertones that run alongside the social narrative quite slickly achieving a good balance. Making points but not necessarily trying to dominate the readers’ sensibilities. A vivid picture of both locations in the nineties allow the reader to almost hear, see and smell the myriad sensations of lands in transition, feel the tensions that seem to be bubbling just beneath the surface and we are frequently reminded of Tiananmen Square, rightly so.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It encompasses what reading is all about. A well constructed story with believable characters, first hand knowledge and research, an intelligent plot that didn’t attempt to stray into the realms of the far fetched yet offered some insights and education surrounding a subject that may previously only been experienced in an occasional news report or a scant glance at a newspaper headline.
My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon at Fly on the Wall press for my gifted copy and a place on the blog tour.
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