Experts' picks: Best Hong Kong books of the year

What are the best Hong Kong books published in the past two years? That's the question we asked Xu Xi, a local author renowned for her crisp prose and sharp observational eye, and Kobe Ho, the friendly and well-read manager of aco, a Wan Chai bookstore and art space that specializes in books published in Hong Kong.

Here are some of their picks: 



"Revenge of the Mooncake Vixens"

by Marilyn Chin. W.W. Norton & Company, 2009. 


The debut novel by the Hong Kong-born Chin is an irreverent, darkly funny look at two Chinese girls growing up in Southern California. "What a treat," says Xu. "It's irreverent, original, literary, readable, funny and anyway Chin is one of the most important transnational writers today." 



"Somehow, here we are" (來到了最後)

by Benedict Leung. Sunrise Thunder Storm, 2008. 


"It's our best-kept secret," says Ho about this book, which was printed and bound by the author. Though it's billed as a novel, it's actually more of a collection of poetic, impressionistic vignettes centered around the life of a young woman. 
 


"Incense Tree: Collected Poems"

by Louise Ho. Hong Kong University Press, 2009. 


One of Hong Kong's most acclaimed poets reflects on the city and its people in this new collection. "She is our conscience, our language czarina, our literary treasure," says Xu.

Read a review by Asian Review of Books. 
 


aco bookstore carries rare titles in Chinese and English.

"White Jade & Other Stories"

by Alex Kuo. Wordcraft, 2008. 


"Kuo is one of the most daring authors I've ever read who has some claim to Hong Kong writing," says Xu. Though he isn't originally from Hong Kong -- he was born in Boston -- Kuo did live here for several years while he taught at Baptist University. With eight stories as wide-ranging and beautifully written as these, it's hard for us not to claim Kuo as one of our own. 
 

"
Hotel China"

by SCC Overton and Edmund Price, editors. Hong Kong Writers' Circle, 2009. 


This year's edition of the Hong Kong Writers' Circle's annual publication features 26 stories set within the unassuming walls of a mid-range hotel in Wan Chai. Beneath the bland business-travel exterior hide mystery and deviance. As you might expect, the quality is variable, but there are some standouts, and it's a good-natured, pulpy romp. 
 


Read a review by Asian Review of Books.

"Evanescent Isles"

by Xu Xi. Hong Kong University Press, 2008. 


Xu Xi's fiction has drawn from her personal story, but she returns to it through a non-fiction lens with a collection of well-crafted essays on Hong Kong. "It's a forum to talk about things I didn't want to fictionalize," she says, like the travails of her own family in the context of the profound class, cultural and political changes Hong Kong has seen in recent decades. 
 


"A Room Without Myself" (房間)

by Lee Chi-leung (李智良). Kubrick, 2008. 


Hong Kong as seen through the eyes of a man dealing with mental illness. "It's very rich reading, very clever, and it has a lot of references to Hong Kong literature and Hong Kong places, especially around the New Territories, where he lives," says Ho.