Lydia Kwa

A historical magic-realist novel set in 7th-century China featuring ghosts, martial arts, and a transformative, much-sought oracle bone.

Oracle Bone

Pulseis a complex, riveting novel about love, death and the ties that bind. The story begins in the summer of 2007 in Toronto’s Chinatown. Natalie is thrown into recollections of her native Singapore when she receives the devastating news that Selim, the son of her childhood friend and lover, has died suddenly. Selim left behind clues that suggest his death may have something to do with Natalie’s own past, and she decides to return to Singapore to uncover the truth. Bound up with this tragedy is the relationship between Natalie and her father, a domineering man whose treatment of his daughter may be the key to understanding Selim’s death.

Pulse

Set in 8th century Tang Dynasty China the novel centers on the abandoned child, Baoshi, who is placed in the care of an aging hermit monk. Baoshi lives a simple and pious life in an isolated mountain shack. Although called a boy, Baoshi was born both male and female; a secret only he and his master know. When he is sixteen, he is sent on a quest to find his master's former lover.

The Walking Boy

Colours of Heroines, The

In Kwa's debut novel, four narrators tell two stories, one of a contemporary Chinese-Canadian psychologist mourning the death of her father, another of two Chinese prostitutes in early 20th century Singapore.

This Place Called Absence

In 7th-century China, life is rife with magic, fox spirits, and demons. Xie, the demon lover of the empress Wu Zhao, believes he must possess the oracle bone, which will bestow immortal powers on him. In his way is Qilan, an eccentric Daoist nun, who is training the orphan girl Ling to avenge her parents’ murder.

The Walking Boy is a quest novel set in early eighth-century Tang Dynasty China, in the final days of the rule of the first Female Emperor Wu Zhao. The ailing hermit monk Harelip sends his disciple Baoshi on a pilgrimage from Mount Hua to Chang’an, the Western capital; Baoshi is the “walking boy” charged with locating Harelip’s missing former lover Ardhanari. Baoshi lives with a secret only his Master knows, and he is filled with fears of being discovered. On his journey, Baoshi crosses paths with both commoners and imperial officials, as well as others who take delight in their queer identities; in doing so, he is released powerfully from his past shame. Lydia Kwa's novel is a book of quiet subversion, upending classical Chinese tropes with contemporary ideas around gender and feminism. Filled with psychological complexities, magic and poetic allusions to classical Chinese literature, The Walking Boy explores the intrigue of inner alchemy while exorcising the ghosts of history.

Lydia Kwa

About

Books

Join the club