• XU XI •
author - editor - teacher

the latest

WHAT SOME OTHER WRITERS SAY:

Proves her mettle as a canny and au courant essayist and observer of THE postmodern city . . . Xu Xi can rightfully claim to be a World Citizen (and) a citizen of a World City, Hong Kong, perhaps the poster city for the 21st Century. Robin Hemley (USA)

Her brilliant riff on the 'city-village' that is also her life moves through changing moods and times in a place of desire, dream and disappearance, sparkling, alert, searching - a real literary pleasure. Nicholas Jose (Australia)

Here, the fortunes of the island and Xu Xi’s family rise and fall together as the personal and political intertwine. This journey into history, class, culture, and place is urgent, insightful, and beautifully written. Sue William Silverman (USA)

Hong Kong is too fast changing a place, too disparate and too uncertain a place to be pinned easily to the page, but Xu Xi manages to fit her Hong Kong into an eclectic, perplexing and deeply personal account of her home city. Justin Hill (Hong Kong)

Cultural anthropologist and traffic cop standing at the diasporic intersection of the most exciting city in the world--Hong Kong--as political idealism, capitalism, economic tsunami, and linguistic imperialism converge on her and there she is waving her pencil with confidence and compassion. Shawn Wong (USA)

 

Xu Xi named the first WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE at Lingnan University (English Department), Hong Kong. The author will be in residence from February to May 2008.

See "Events & Media" for upcoming appearances in New York City and Hong Kong.

Full Chinese name at birth

SHORTLISTED for the inaugural prize

HABIT OF A FOREIGN SKY
Novel-in-manuscript
(81,000 words, 335 mss. pgs.)

Premise: What if responsibilities vanish and life goes into a free fall?

Synopsis: January, 1998, the height of the Asian economic crisis. For single mother Gail Szeto (46), the VP of global investment bank Northeast Trust’s Asia division, life is mindlessly frenetic as she shuttles between home in Hong Kong and New York City, where the bank is headquartered. In one long, unrelenting moment, all her life changes, putting brakes on the frenzy. This woman with a complicated past, who was once sure of her direction in life, can now see no clear future path. An international cast of characters support the drama in this Sino-American balance of power, witnessed through private, global lives in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai.


Australian author & prize judge Nicholas Jose:
"an indispensable work of contemporary fiction by an important novelist at the height of her powers . . . the Jamesian complexity of subtle moral and material conflicts makes for a compelling, seductive reading experience . . . Her book is movingly intimate and exhilaratingly grand in ways that have strong appeal for me and for my colleagues on the Man Asia Prize jury."

Agents


INTERNATIONAL AGENT FOR ALL RIGHTS
Harold Matson Company, 276 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (1) 212.679.4490 Fax: 212.545.1224
Agent: Ben Camardi hmatsco@aol.com

EUROPE & ASIA (publishing rights, select titles)
Creative Work Limited
2701 Citibank Tower, 3 Garden Road
Central, Hong Kong.
Tel: (852) 2169.2760 Fax 2169.2766
Agent: Marysia Juszczakiewicz
marysiaj@creative-work.com Mobile: 9761.4122

information for booksellers


REGIONAL DISTRIBUTORS

NORTH AMERICA/UK/Europe
Continental Enterprises Group, 302 W. North Second St., Seneca, SC 29678.
Tel: 864.885.9444 Fax: 864.885.1090 centerprisesgrp@bellsouth.net

NEW ZEALAND
Addenda Ltd., PO Box 78-224, Grey Lynn, Auckland. Tel: 09.836.7471 Fax: 09.836.7401

ASIA PACIFIC please contact Chameleon Press Ltd., 23/F Success Commercial Building, Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong. Tel: 2511.4211 Fax: 2507.3335




books

(1) Novel
The Unwalled City (2001)
An insider's look at contemporary Hong Kong
Hong Kong Rose (1997) 2nd edition, 2004
Love, and lust, unrequited and transformed in two of the world's great cities
(2) Collection
Overleaf Hong Kong (2004)
Stories & Essays of the Chinese, Overseas
History's Fiction (2001) 2nd edition, 2005
Stories from the City of Hong Kong
(3) Compendium
(4) Anthology
CITY VOICES (2003)
Hong Kong Writing in English 1945 - Present
Anthology
City Stage (2005)
Hong Kong Playwriting in English


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