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A powerful, award-winning novel that follows the lives of two women as democracy starts to crumble in Hong Kong.
One summer morning, college roommates, Ah Lei and Panda, wake up with very different reactions to the night before. They have been chased and tear-gassed in the streets of their city after joining tens of thousands of others to protest a national security law that would effectively spell the end of democracy in Hong Kong. Ah Lei couldn't get out of bed, her heart heavy with the lingering images of the police and the violence on the streets, and her worries about the future of her hometown. Panda, whose resistance is no less ardent, put on a sundress, lines her eyes and urges Ah Lei to join her for brunch.
While the demonstrations rage, the routine of life also persists for Ah Lei, Panda and people in their orbits. They attend family gatherings, fight with their mothers, try and fail to focus at work on Mondays, and make time for dinner dates and app hookups. But the looming political tension and anxiety for the future transform such everyday encounters. In the span of a few months, life as they know it seems to become a mirage: the comfort of air-conditioned shopping malls is disrupted by bloodshed; tear gas and sounds of rubber bullets amid neon signs strangely evoke happier memories of summer night fireworks.
Gigi L. Leung's visceral novel Everyday Movement reveals existential questions that interrupt normal life: belonging, patriotism, the meaningfulness of an electoral democracy as well as the pampering sense of norm created by consumerism. Fiery and tender, Leung's writing captures the heartbreak, turmoil and rebirth in bearing witness to and engaging with a shattering reality.
"It's an intimate portrait of bravery in the face of repression." —Publishers Weekly
"A cinematic, sympathetic view of the personal costs of political conflict, many of which will be frighteningly familiar." —Kirkus Reviews
"A powerful novel set in a Hong Kong that feels remarkably universal." —Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West
"A dazzling, page-turning novel, tracing the varied domestic, interpersonal, romantic, ethical, financial, and political considerations at work on a cast of interconnected characters during the Hong Kong protests of 2019. Gripping, specific, important, and highly satisfying." —Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or
This information about Everyday Movement was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Leung Lee Chi is a writer of fiction and poetry. Her work was a finalist for the Taipei Literary Award and won Golden Tripod Awards in 2024. She grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Hualien, Taiwan.
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