Hong Kong Noir (Akashic Noir)

“Showcases the extremes of one of the world’s capitals. From ghost stories, to historical thrills, to underworld brutality . . . endlessly fascinating.”—CrimeReads

Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the respective city. In Hong Kong Noir, fourteen of the city’s finest authors explore the dark heart of the Pearl of the Orient in haunting stories of depravity and despair.
This anthology includes brand-new stories by Jason Y. Ng, Xu Xi, Marshall Moore, Brittani Sonnenberg, Tiffany Hawk, James Tam, Rhiannon Jenkins Tsang, Christina Liang, Feng Chi-shun, Charles Philipp Martin, Shannon Young, Shen Jian, Carmen Suen, and Ysabelle Cheung.
“The history of Hong Kong, once a fishing village, encompasses piracy, the opium trade, prostitution, corruption, espionage and revolutionary plots; grist for the 14 dark tales in Hong Kong Noir.”—BBC Culture
“A delightfully dark collection of fiction from Hong Kong, a city where talk is cheap and cash is still king.”—Ritz-Carlton Magazine
“Ng and Blumberg-Kason defy the fates by presenting a collection of 14 stores—by Chinese tradition, an ominous number—illustrating their city’s dark side . . . Readers can feel lucky to have such a collection.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Hong Kong Noir digs below the financial center’s gleaming surface to unearth stories of the city’s ghosts and spirits.”—South China Morning Post

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Now in the 14th year of its Noir series ― which has collected original stories from Brooklyn to Istanbul to Lagos ― Akashic has assembled a delightfully dark collection of fiction from Hong Kong, a city where talk is cheap and cash is still king.
“
― Ritz-Carlton Magazine, Page Turner pick for Winter 2018 and Recommended by Albert Wan of Bleak House Books

“Crime fiction has to work hard to compete in a city where dismembered bodies make conspicuous appearances in news headlines . . . The result is natives and expats mingle with returning Cantonese and displaced mainlanders, each (often correctly) suspicious of the others’ motives . . . As far as the city itself is concerned, this collection represents Hong Kong to its very core.”
― Asian Review of Books

“Ng and Blumberg-Kason defy the fates by presenting a collection of 14 stories ― by Chinese tradition, an ominous number ― illustrating their city’s dark side . . . Ng and Blumberg-Kason’s Hong Kong is a city on the brink, haunted by its past but facing an uncertain future. Readers can feel lucky to have such a collection.
“
― Kirkus Reviews

“The history of Hong Kong, once a fishing village, encompasses piracy, the opium trade, prostitution, corruption, espionage and revolutionary plots; grist for the 14 dark tales in Hong Kong Noir.”
― BBC Culture, Included in 10 Books to Read in December 2018

“Like all good love songs, the stories in Hong Kong Noir are dark . . . Everyone in Hong Kong Noir is on the move. Some come looking for money or romance or home. They may be mainlanders or Hong Kong born, refugees or tourists, high-flying bankers or American soldiers out for a little R&R. Hong Kongers every one of them.”
― Bookish Asia

About the Author

Jason Y. Ng is the best-selling author of Hong Kong State of Mind, No City for Slow Men, and Umbrellas in Bloom–the first book in English to chronicle the Umbrella Movement of 2014. His short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies. Ng is also an adjunct associate law professor at the University of Hong Kong and president of PEN Hong Kong.Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair With China Gone Wrong. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books China Blog and China channel, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Asian Jewish Life, and several Hong Kong anthologies. She received an MPhil in government and public administration from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Blumberg-Kason lives in Chicago and frequently travels to Hong Kong.