Red Affairs, White Affairs

Author(s): Felicia Nay

Location(s): Hong Kong

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Early 2000s

Hong Kong at the beginning of a new millennium – a teeming city where ritual, religion, the spirits of the dead and the spirit of enterprise meet and clash. For Reini ‘Kim’ Kranich, a young German aid worker obsessed with death, Chinese underwear, Emily Dickinson and cockroaches, it’s a place of fragile hopes.

When her friend Virginia’s mother falls terminally ill, Reini finds Virginia’s notions of family, faith and loyalty raise deep questions about her own beliefs. And when she meets a Buddhist environmental activist, she finds Hong Kong’s many contradictions come into sharp focus as her past, friendships and works begin to knot, pull tight and threaten to unravel completely.

Lyrical and elegant, Red Affairs, White Affairs is a rich and evocative debut novel that weaves a path through the mysteries of relationships and friendship, commitment and compassion. Felicia Nay’s prose is immersive and mesmerizing. A novel as vivid as the extraordinary city that it inhabits.

Review this Book