First published 2009
Claire Pendleton arrives in Hong Kong in 1951, following her husband's work transfer from London. She takes a job teaching piano to the daughter of the wealthy Chen family. The sweltering city captivates her, but so does Will Truesdale, the Chens' enigmatic driver. Will is handsome and charming, yet he walks with a mysterious limp and seems overqualified for his position. As Claire spends time with him while her husband works, she finds herself drawn into his world. But Will carries secrets from the Japanese occupation that devastated Hong Kong's expatriate community just years before. The foreign nationals who once enjoyed privileged lives among the local elite faced impossible choices during the war. Some denied reality, others resisted, many submitted. All paid a price. Claire's growing fascination with Will forces her to confront the hidden trauma that still haunts the city's survivors and threatens to upend her own carefully ordered life.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adult-fiction
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, hidden-trauma
Setting: Hong Kong
Period: 1951
328 pages · Hardcover · Viking
Content warnings: war