When Sleeping Women Wake

(Paperback)

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An epic and emotional story of three spirited women - a mother, her daughter, their maid - during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong

1941. The wealthy Tang family has settled in Hong Kong after fleeing Shanghai. As the First Wife of the family, Mingzhu leads a glamorous but lonely existence - mothering the son of her husband's concubine, overseeing her daughter Qiang's education, and directing their household of servants, including her long-time confidante, Biyu.

When the Japanese invade the island, the three women's paths wildly diverge. Mingzhu's affinity for languages spares her physical labour but she's coerced into serving an enemy captain. Qiang and Biyu suffer brutal factory work and food rations until an encounter with the East River Column Resistance fighters separates them. As war rages around them, each woman holds onto the hope that the others are alive. Can they fight for their freedom and still find their way back to each other

Fans of Lisa See, Kristin Hannah and Anthony Doerr, storytellers who blend historical accuracy with personal narrative, will love this book. Through years of impeccable research, Australian-Chinese novelist Emma Pei Yin breathes new life into real events. At once monumental and intimate, heartbreaking and hopeful, When Sleeping Women Wake is an exquisitely written novel about the unbreakable bonds that unite women.

Author Bio

Emma is a British-born Hong Kong-Chinese writer and editor. She contributes to The Mekong Review, The Hong Kong Review, Being Asian Australian, HerCanberra, Aniko Press and Books+Publishing. In 2023, BookPeople and Penguin Random House Australia nominated her as Bookseller of the Year. That same year, her manuscript, Chasing Echoes in the Rain, was shortlisted for the Allen & Unwin Voices from the Intersection Mentorship Programme. Emma is the founder of yinfluence editorial, an agency specialising in manuscript editing, copyediting, proofreading, and web content copy for writers and businesses. Her debut historical fiction novel, When Sleeping Women Wake, will be published globally in 2025.