Hannah Cao

Hannah Cao's debut novel, CAFE AT 46 OLD STREET, is a story on finding family, identity, expectations, and failure, and finding freedom in growth and forgiveness. Sometimes all you really need is a place to call home. Hanh arrives in London with nothing but her sketchbook and her journal. She is starry-eyed at the idea of starting a new life in the city of opportunities-- where she is no longer forced to sit at Friday dinners with her father's new wife and kids, and where, on the downside, she is no longer with her first love. Winston has always been a little out-of-sync. As if to prove how disappointing he looks next to his Golden brother, he just dropped out of university and, on top of that, was dumped by his girlfriend over text. Living a life of dark espresso without the sugar, he is struggling to find a role in his own life. Clementine is a quirky rarity, a splash of nosy and a cup of eccentric, destined to be the driving force of her parents' otherwise sleepy coffee shop -- if she doesn't lose it to the looming competition threatening her eviction. Alexander grew up unable to fit in, having moved from Italy to London with his overachieving mother at a young age and constantly changing schools. His quiet nature is a curtain to his fears, but his delightful tarts are a reflection of how others feel about him. From the outside, their lives are simple: they're a group of an overjoyed newbie, a strictly sober bartender, an exuberant coffee shop owner and a quiet baker trying to find their place in the world. But still waters run deep in the Cafe At 46 Old Street, so when reality comes catching up to them, threatening their routine and crumbling their lofty walls, their lives are changed in a matter of a year. Will they find their way back home?

Cafe at 46 Old Street

There are easier things to write about than a broken family, heartbreak and mental illness but Hannah Cao has always been vulnerable in her words, shaped by youth, growth, the hurt and the process of self-acceptance. This collection is more than tales from her life that truly began with a move to London, an abundance of heartbroken notes to past lovers, letters to her estranged father and love poems to a Valentine and most of all, a self. It is a journey to comfort, a journey to the shore.With illustrations by Ngoc Anh Phan.

Seashore

Cafe At 46 Old Street

The strangers attend an evening party.

The strangers don't know each other.

The strangers hardly know themselves.

The Evening Party is a series of prose and poems, unveiling hidden stories of strangers brought together for the same rooftop party in London.

They are each riddled with the anxieties of modern age, the complexities of love, the challenges of dysfunctional families and other intricate relationships, and a pervasive sense of being trapped in their own existence.

This collection reveals a poignant tapestry of human connection and isolation. The Evening Party unveils the extraordinary in the mundane, breathing life into the passage of time and the memories that define us. The Evening Party is a mirror, an usher, and a reminder to savour moments that otherwise slip through our fingers unnoticed.

The Evening Party

Café At 46 Old Street

To Ethan

Zero O'Clock

Loopholes

Read This When I'm Gone is a homage to all the things left unsaid in love, loss, unrequited romance, depression and anxiety, nostalgia and solitude. This collection contains letters and notes to all the boys and girls I've loved and includes a compilation of drunken texts and ramblings from my Notes app - a poignant exploration of a maturing young woman whom you are bound to find yourself reflecting with. Whether you seek to reflect or find comforting reminders, the words in this book speak to YOU.

Hannah Cao

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