The Borrowed - Softcover

Ho-Kei, Chan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802125883 ISBN 13: 9780802125880

Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat, 2017

Synopsis

From award-winning Hong Kong writer Chan Ho-Kei, The Borrowed tells the story of Kwan Chun-dok, a Hong Kong detective whose career spans fifty years of the territory’s history. A deductive powerhouse, Kwan becomes a legend in the force, nicknamed the Eye of Heaven” by his awe-struck colleagues. Divided into six sections told in reverse chronological order each of which covers an important case in Kwan’s career and takes place at a pivotal moment in Hong Kong history from the 1960s to the present day The Borrowed follows Kwan from his experiences during the Leftist Riot in 1967, when a bombing plot threatens many lives; the conflict between the HK Police and ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) in 1977; the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989; to the Handover in 1997; and the present day of 2013, when Kwan is called on to solve his final case, the murder of a local billionaire, while Hong Kong increasingly resembles a police state. Along the way we meet Communist rioters, ultraviolent gangsters, stallholders at the city’s many covered markets, pop singers enmeshed in the high-stakes machinery of star-making, and a people always caught in the shifting balance of political power, whether in London or Beijing all coalescing into a dynamic portrait of this fascinating city.

Tracing a broad historical arc, The Borrowed reveals just how closely everything is connected, how history always repeats itself, and how we have come full circle to repeat the political upheaval and societal unrest of the past. It is a gripping, brilliantly constructed novel from a talented new voice.

About this title

About the Author:

Chan Ho-Kei was born and raised in Hong Kong. He has worked as software engineer, script writer, game designer and editor of comic magazines. His writing career started with the short story The Murder Case of Jack and the Beanstalk,” which was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of Taiwan Award. He won the award the next year with The Locked Room of Bluebeard.” Chan’s first novel, The Man Who Sold the World, won the Soji Shimada Mystery Award, the biggest mystery award in the Chinese-language world, and was published in five languages.

Review:

Praise for The Borrowed:

This is an ambitious narrative brilliantly executed. It hands us the living history of Hong Kong through the gripping prism of crime and politics told backwards. What an achievement!” John Burdett, author of Bangkok 8

Five decades of Hong Kong policing stand behind the wise Inspector Kwan as he helps his protégé, Detective Lok, confound murderers and reveal much about life in their unique homeland.” Sunday Times (Crime Club) (UK)

This naturally reminded me of Soji Shimada, and the strength of his detective Takeshi Yoshiki’s passion and determination to unravel clues. I also thought of . . . the American novelist Ed McBain, whose 87th Precinct series examines the intersections between police work and the individual lives of those in the force. The strong sense of social responsibility in the books by the Swedish Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö came to mind too.” OKAPI

With the police force and social conflicts as its background, covering 50 years of politics, history and economics, intertwined with clever detective fiction, [The Borrowed] fits peculiarly with the current social situation in Hong Kong, and will surely stir up readers’ emotions.” Macau Closer

This unusual collection of linked stories spans more than four decades, each of them set at a significant date in Hong Kong’s history . . . [starring] Inspector Kwan as an old-fashioned, omniscient . . . detective.” Sunday Times (UK)

[Chan’s] latest award-winning book is about the evolution of the police force and graft-busting in the city . . . [It] spans 50 years and is a tale about a prominent local policeman that takes in watershed events in Hong Kong . . . It is likely to strike a chord.” South China Morning Post

In the eternal search for something new in the crime genre, varieties from other countries other than the Nordic countries are undergoing forensic examination. . . The success of [The Borrowed] suggests that Hong Kong may be fertile territory . . . An innovative novel with a complex structure” Barry Forshaw, CrimeTime (online)

Chan Ho-kei’s The Borrowed is full of surprises . . . A brilliant detective novel.” Taiwanese novelist and crime editor extraordinaire Wolf Hsu

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0802125883
• ISBN 13: 9780802125880
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496