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The Borrowed, by Chan Ho-Kei - part I

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Mandel C.
The Borrowed, by Chan Ho-Kei - part I

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Join us as we continue our tour through Asian literature by discussing the first half of this contemporary hardboiled detective novel from Hong Kong!

Publisher's description:

"A propulsive crime drama featuring a legendary Hong Kong detective on a decades-long quest to expose the city’s dark underbelly.

Covering six cases that span Kwan Chun-dok’s impressive fifty-year career, The Borrowed takes readers on a tour of Hong Kong history from the Leftist Riot in 1967; the conflict between the HK Police and ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) in 1977; the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989; the Handover in 1997; to the present day of 2013, when Kwan is called on to solve his final case, the murder of a local billionaire, while Hong Kong increasingly resembles a police state. Along the way we meet Communist rioters, ultraviolent gangsters, stallholders at the city’s many covered markets, pop singers enmeshed in the high-stakes machinery of star-making, and a people always caught in the shifting balance of political power, whether in London or Beijing.

A gripping and brilliantly constructed novel from a talented new voice in crime fiction, The Borrowed paints a dynamic portrait of Hong Kong and reveals just how closely the past and present are connected in this fascinating city."

For this meeting, we'll be discussing parts I-III of the novel - roughly, its first half. If you don't have a physical copy of the book, you can find a copy of it here:

https://tinyurl.com/4zhuxkkh

Our plan is to meet at Dokdabang Cafe (독수리 다방) in Sinchon, which is on the 8th floor of the building indicated on the map linked to on this page. The address of Dokdabang is 36, Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul 03776. Below are Kakao Maps and Naver Maps links to the cafe:

https://kko.kakao.com/-U2GDIbg1b

https://naver.me/G7KDxJuu

If you plan to attend this meeting and would like updates you can join our ‘Reading Modern Lit active’ OpenChat on KakaoTalk. Feel free to leave and return to this chat based on your activity. The purpose of this chat is to better gauge who plans to attend our meetings as there are often no-shows.

Reading Modern Lit (active)
https://open.kakao.com/o/gaqP0Hre

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Every 2 weeks on Sunday until November 30, 2028

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