Sometimes the setting in a novel is so rich, so descriptive and so key to the story that it actually becomes one of the characters.
Such is the case with the dazzling city of Hong Kong, the setting for The Expatriates, the story of three women living in a small expat community and how their lives intersect.
I have never been to Hong Kong although it is certainly on my travel bucket list. But based on how others have described it to me, including my daughter who visited several years ago, author Janice Y.K. Lee perfectly captures the mystique, the glamour and the class system: the privileged and the deprived.
With Lee’s keen sense of nuance, plus her intimate knowledge of the city (she was born there), the bustling metropolis that serves as a temporary home for expatriates Mercy, Margaret and Hilary comes alive as their stories are told.
There is pathos in their lives. Mercy is the 20-something Korean American from Queens, NY who graduated from Columbia but did not find the automatic path to success she had expected with an Ivy League diploma. Unlike many of her classmates who have moved on to relationships and careers, she is stagnating in a pool of bad luck and poor choices.
Margaret is a happily married mother of three, living the good life with luncheons, spa treatments and parties occupying her days. Until tragedy strikes and she is forced to deal with a devastating loss, that is. She goes through the motions of life while her heart is breaking, putting on a good act of being the happy wife and devoted mother but overwhelmed with sadness.
Coming from a wealthy family, Hilary lives in luxury with her husband and is waited on by servants. But money can’t resolve her fertility issues, and she is consumed by her inability to get pregnant. As she and her husband deliberate over adopting a young boy they have come to know, her life shifts abruptly and she is forced to deal with loss.
And loss really is the catalyst that will propel them move forward, as each comes to accept what is and recalibrate. In the surprising but plausible moment when their lives converge, they find common ground — and are able to help each other in ways that would have been thought unimaginable.
“Hong Kong is so small” is an oft repeated phrase by the characters in this book. The expatriates tend to live in the same areas, shop at the same stores, attend the same parties. This microcosm of Hong Kong society is fascinating to observe, almost like an anthropological study, and Lee does it magnificently.
One of my lucky readers will receive a copy of The Expatriates. Please leave a comment and a winner will be selected randomly.
I received a complimentary copy of The Expatriates from Viking for an honest review,
which is the only kind of review I write.
