Fanny Rider is a happily married mother of two and owner of her own small business whose hard-won contentment and sanity is threatened when, out of the blue, she receives a letter from the daughter she abandoned twenty years before.
Fanny leaves her family in New York and travels to Hong Kong, where she searches her past and the present for answers to the question of whether she can forge some relationship with the three children, now young adults, she left behind. She explores the once-beautiful, now-decrepit house called Water Music, situated on the South China Sea, which is haunted by violent spirits from its World War II occupation. She had lived there as the young wife of a British diplomat, until the oppressive demands of that life strained her mental health to the point of disaster. She struggles, alone, to know if her first three children can forgive her for leaving, if her second family will forgive her for keeping such a terrible secret, and if she can ever forgive herself for it all. Was she mad, as the doctors believed, or just selfish, as her husband and mother claimed?

Among its other riches, the novel explores an exotic Buddhist exorcism of the fabulous, but ill-fated Water Music and the descriptions of the differences Fanny finds in Hong Kong of the 1960s and Hong Kong of the 1990s before the British turnover to China. It is also a careful exploration of women's roles: how far can a mother go to save her own life?

I liked this book a lot - it was interesting, kind of heart-breaking, but not too "soft or sobby".

Congratulations to February's book winner!

Thank you! I have indeed not read this one before :)

I enjoyed the descriptions and other stories that revolved around Hong Kong, but found the rest of the plot quite uninteresting. The Buddhist exorcism bit was definitely the most memorable thing in this book!

** Comment to a country challenge: I've spent 3 days in HK, while on my way to Taiwan (plus a couple half-days at the airport on my way to Japan). Slightly too busy and crowded there for my taste, especially on Sundays! But I remember finding a little island where cars were not allowed, with some really nice restaurants and at least a bit of peace & quiet... definitely a tourist spot instead of a hidden gem, but nevertheless a lovely place to escape the fumes and huge crowds.

Going to Paulanni next :)

Thank you, sakirmo, for the book. Sounds interesting and I look forward to reading it.

The descriptions of Hong Kong were interesting and the life story of the protagonist, Fanny, touching, though a little long-winded in places. All in all, I liked the book.

The author was born in England, raised in Hong Kong and lives in New York, and the book is set a bit in England and a bit in New York, but mostly in Hong Kong. I think this qualifies for the Non-EU book and local chocolate sweeps.
Congratulations to the decoy winner (I think)!