Book Description
The Mandarin introduces us to a world of fantasy and imagination in which the characters cross horizons from the Far East to Europe. There are surprising twists and turns of fate, social adventures and hidden desires that pull the reader from one drama to another, set in a real, as well as imagined, world.
“Whether anecdotes retold, passing tributes, revelatory gossip or swift vignettes of previous times that have shaped our modernity, these unvarnished stories cut across colonial Hong Kong, Portugal to Paris, connecting eras and places while exposing foibles, vulnerabilities, social misadventures and unspoken desires. The writing is sharp, almost terse, unpretentious, quietly ironic, and surprisingly poignant.”
– Cyril Wong, poet and fictionist
“This superb, many-faceted collection shows what the short story at its best can do. Brevity equips Malcolm Jack with seven-league boots as he steps through a lifetime of experience across four continents. And true to genre, the engaging characters and scenes he depicts are open to free interpretation. The societies he sketches are typically unstable, and many of his people are fugitive, marginalised, or in some way displaced. Solitude is embodied in the lives of a central group of artist figures, but their work in varied fields celebrates sociableness. Transformative moments of social kindling lie at the heart of these stories, which—true to the greats—leave a long flare in the mind of the reader.”
– Peter Knox Shaw, author and scholar
“Malcolm Jack’s new collection of short stories is suffused with atmosphere and touched by a wicked sense of irony. With the discerning eye of a consummate traveller, he captures the very essence of each place he sets these stories in, from his beloved Hong Kong, to sunlit Cintra, to Paris, Oxford, London and more. But above all, it is the impressive cast of characters at turns earnest, mysterious, eccentric and very much alive that enthrals and draws the reader in. Exquisite!”
– Kennie Ting, historian and author
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