A novel for those who loved Behind the Scenes at the Museum, The Poisonwood Bible and The Lovely Bones. Raped then murdered in Japanese occupied Hong Kong, 1942, Lin Shui's 'Hungry Ghost' clings tenaciously to life. Holing up in a hospital morgue, destined to become a school, just in time she finds a host off whom to feed. It is 12-year-old Alice Safford, the deeply-troubled daughter of a leading figure in government. The parasitic ghost follows her to her home on the Peak. There, the lethal mix of the two, embroiled in the family's web of dark secrets and desperate lies, unleashes chaos. All this unfolds against a background of colonial unrest, riots, extremes of weather and the countdown to the return of the colony to China. As successive tragedies engulf Alice, her ghostly entourage swells alarmingly. She flees to England, then France, in a bid to escape the past, only to find her portable 'Hungry Ghosts' have accompanied her. It seems the peace she longs for is to prove far more elusive that she could ever have imagined. The Hungy Ghosts is a remarkable tour-de-force of the imagination, full of instantly memorable characters whose lives intermesh and boil over in a cauldron of domestic mayhem, unleashing unworldly spirits into the troubled air.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
' [A] stunning debut. A schoolgirl in Hong Kong is haunted by the ghost of a murdered Chinese girl in this story of broken family, and its hidden secrets and lies.' Woman and Home "A stunning debut!Epic in scope and voice!so skilfully crafted, and the writing so elegant, it's hard to believe it is a first novel." The Globe and Mail '[A] brilliant, brittle portrayal of colonial Hong Kong and vividly cruel series of first-person narratives' Psychologies 'The vivid, sensory depictions of Hong Kong circa 1970 ignite this almost unrelentingly sad story, and Berry's easy way of switching between different narrative voices from chapter to chapter is impressive.' The List
About the Author
Anne Berry was born in London in 1956, then spent much of her infancy in Aden, before moving on to Hong Kong at the age of six, where she was educated. She worked for a short period as a journalist for the South China Morning Post, before returning to Britain. After completing a three-year acting course, she embarked on a career in theatre, playing everything from pantomime to Shakespeare. She now lives in Surrey with her husband and four children. 'The Hungry Ghosts' is her first novel.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bad book, but author has some skill,
By Japan Reader (eastern Japan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Hungry Ghosts. Anne Berry (Paperback)
This is a pretty bad book. The multiple point-of-view is confusing, the characters are unbelievable, and not one of them is likable. Also, there's way too much telling and not enough showing. Probably less than 10 percent of the text is conversation, and the rest is just narration. This results in a really flat book; it could have been a lot more active. Oh, and there's some really bad sections where the author has the characters 'tell' you necessary historical background. Very clumsy. That said, the author isn't completely talentless. Her descriptions of places are often vivid and she has some good use of words. (She has a few really miserable ones, too, where her metaphors are tortured and in some cases laughable.) If she'd had either a good editor or a really good writing workshop, she might have come up with a better book. As it is, this one seems to have been hurried into print while still in first draft or second draft stage. This book is inspiring to aspiring writers. Why? Because if a book this bad can make it into print, maybe yours can too.
1.0 out of 5 stars
What was the point?,
This review is from: The Hungry Ghosts (Paperback)
I'm confused about what was the point of this novel. I read it because I've lived in London, Paris and Hong Kong. It was fun to read about familiar places but that was where the enjoyment ended.
Why did this ghost latch on to this girl? Was there some lesson on life after death or what was it going on? The writing style was very annoying, written in the first person by multiple characters but all sounding the same. The only one who didn't write was the main character, which was a disappointment. I would have kind of liked to have had her explain some things. Most of the players are really unsympathetic, especially the mother. She seems to have no logic or soul and the only "explanation" was that her brother was favored as a child. There is also a very thinly explained suicide and it's odd that someone gets pregnant at 16 and then without explanation, never gets pregnant again. Certainly that wasn't the reason? Not medically accurate. Sorry!
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Hungry Ghosts My Spirit is Hungry for More!,
This review is from: The Hungry Ghosts (Paperback)
How can this be a debut novel, so brave and professional in it`s delivery and evocative in it`s imagination, descriptive elegance near to Peake and in it`s own way as thought rendering as The Shack, but I prefer the ghosts, bring on the next lady!
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