City Like Water: A Novel [Paperback]

The city you grew up in is gone, as if sunk to the bottom of the ocean. So much has vanished with itclassmates, teachers, counterfeit watches, the erotic toe cleavage that used to lead the way down secret passages. Yet you still catch snatches of conversation lingering in the air and glimpse sun-dazzled residents retreating into dark crevices.

People seem to keep disappearing. Your mother joins in a housewives protest, each woman waving the fake, bloody lotus roots they were sold until police helicopters unleash a glittery spray that turns them into statues. Then its just you and your father at home, until he is quietly absorbed into the enormous new TV gifted by the government, and you spot him doing tai chi or picking through leftovers in the background of soap operas. And didnt you once have a little sister, before she flew away in her school uniform? As the police go undercover and transform your neighborhood into a violent labyrinth you can no longer navigate, where does this leave you?

Lucid, nightmarish, and indelible,CityLike Wateris a wondrous and pointed message in a bottle from a city not so different from your own.

Dorothy Tse is a Hong Konger writer and the author ofOwlish, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize, andSnow and Shadow, which was long-listed for the Best Translated Book Award. She has received the Hong Kong Book Prize, the Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature, and Taiwans Unitas New Fiction Writers Award. She is the cofounder of the literary journalFleurs des Lettres.

Natascha Bruce translates fiction from Chinese. Her recent work includesOwlishby Dorothy Tse,Mystery Trainby Can Xue, andLake Like a Mirrorby Ho Sok Fong. After several years in Hong Kong, she now lives in Aml³‰