Three chocolate croissants, please!
I came across a group of Japanese tourists yesterday as I was hurrying to a meeting in the city. They surprised me by being uncharacteristically un-Japanese. I love the way people behave in Japan, the...
View ArticleThe Devil of Nanking / Tokyo
Tokyo (or The Devil of Nanking, depending on which edition you’re reading) by Mo Hayder is a book that is hard to put in a box, and that’s not a bad thing. Some classify it as thriller, others as...
View ArticleA concise history of Hong Kong by John Carroll
As part of the research for my next novel, I’ve been reading A concise history of Hong Kong, by John Carroll, and I’ve learned a lot. The book was written with the general public in mind and is not...
View ArticleThe obsessions of Amelie Nothomb
Amelie Nothomb, the prolific Belgian writer, is an interesting person. Her always short, definitely out-there, novels (some of them more novellas than novels) revolve around a small number of common...
View ArticleWhat is it about Japan?
We had a friend staying with us in Hong Kong for a few days this week. He decided to spend three days in Tokyo for a short visit mid-week and came back enthusiastic. He had never been to Japan and he...
View ArticleNorwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Murakami‘s writing is beautiful. It is extremely evocative, subtle, yet powerful. Each scene draws you into a life of its own; you can smell it, feel it, hear it and see it, a feast for all senses....
View ArticleShanghai (the film)
In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, four months before Pearl Harbor, an American spy (John Cusak) returns to the city to find one of his good friends murdered. While trying to solve the mystery of his...
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