The Hungry Ghosts - Softcover

Berry, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007303394 ISBN 13: 9780007303397

Publisher: Blue Door, 2009

Synopsis

A novel for those who loved Behind the Scenes at the Museum, The Poisonwood Bible and The Lovely Bones

Raped then murdered in Japanese occupied Hong Kong, 1942, Lin Shui’s ‘Hungry Ghost’ clings tenaciously to life. Holing up in a hospital morgue, destined to become a school, just in time she finds a host off whom to feed. It is 12-year-old Alice Safford, the deeply-troubled daughter of a leading figure in government. The parasitic ghost follows her to her home on the Peak. There, the lethal mix of the two, embroiled in the family’s web of dark secrets and desperate lies, unleashes chaos. All this unfolds against a background of colonial unrest, riots, extremes of weather and the countdown to the return of the colony to China. As successive tragedies engulf Alice, her ghostly entourage swells alarmingly. She flees to England, then France, in a bid to escape the past, only to find her portable ‘Hungry Ghosts’ have accompanied her. It seems the peace she longs for is to prove far more elusive that she could ever have imagined.

The Hungy Ghosts is a remarkable tour-de-force of the imagination, full of instantly memorable characters whose lives intermesh and boil over in a cauldron of domestic mayhem, unleashing unworldly spirits into the troubled air.

About this title

Product Description:

The Hungry Ghosts

Review:

' [A] stunning debut. A schoolgirl in Hong Kong is haunted by the ghost of a murdered Chinese girl in this story of broken family, and its hidden secrets and lies.' Woman and Home

“A stunning debut...Epic in scope and voice...so skilfully crafted, and the writing so elegant, it’s hard to believe it is a first novel.” The Globe and Mail

'[A] brilliant, brittle portrayal of colonial Hong Kong and vividly cruel series of first-person narratives’ Psychologies

'The vivid, sensory depictions of Hong Kong circa 1970 ignite this almost unrelentingly sad story, and Berry’s easy way of switching between different narrative voices from chapter to chapter is impressive.' The List

About this edition

• Publisher: Blue Door
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0007303394
• ISBN 13: 9780007303397
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400