
Timothy Mo’s sweeping historical novel is set on the China coast in the 1830s, before and during the 19th-century Opium Wars.
Adolph Ng, an effete, Canadian-educated hotel owner of Chinese origin, leads a placid existence on Danu, the eastern half of an island to the north of Australia.
He and his companions - the fiery and radical Rosa Soares, the quiet but formidable Dr Maria Nolasco da Silva, the clever but dissatisfied Raoul Garcia, and the dignified ex-seminarian Martinho Oliveira - meet in the cafes and bars to trade salacious gossip and forge the policies of FAKOUM, the government of their newly-independent homeland.
About the Author
Timothy Peter Mo was born in Hong Kong. Three of his novels have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize.