Annals of the Purple City

In a Portuguese colony on the south coast of China a beautiful Australian woman gradually achieves her own freedom and integrity through her relationships with four men: her indifferent English husband, her deeply sensual Eurasian lover, an expatriate Hong Kong homosexual dropout and an aged Chinese millionaire. The interplay of personalities is woven into the social and political fabric of a splendid antique city which itself provides the gateway for all the characters to a deeper level of reality: the Purple City, the mystical city which is hidden in all of us. The story fuses the Latin and Chinese elements which characterises the Portuguese presence in China and provides insights into the emotional lives of a variety of people when east and west meet. Though a novel in the Western sense it also employs features of Chinese classical fiction in terms of intriguing subplots, use of dreams and poetry and scenes of heightened reality. With its rich erotic, political and mystical undertones, this is a book that will appeal to all with interest in the intersection of Asia and The West.