On Java Road

Book cover of On Java Road

Book description

A veteran British journalist living in Hong Kong investigates the disappearance of a student protestor amidst the pro-democracy demonstrations in this unsettling new novel from the acclaimed author of The Forgiven

After twenty years as an ex-pat reporter in Hong Kong, Adrian Gyle has almost nothing to show for it.…

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Why read it?

1 author picked On Java Road as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Annette Hamilton

Author

Lawrence Osborne’s books lie somewhere between thrillers, memoirs, psychological investigations, and cross-cultural mysteries. He has been likened to Graham Greene, Paul Bowles, and Ian McEwen, but his stories are truly contemporary in feeling and could be called Expat Noir.

I loved this book for its depiction of the confusions experienced by a veteran British journalist as he attempted to unravel the disappearance of a student protestor amidst the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019-2020. His descriptions of the city, its texture and sensations, and the increasing difficulties arising from powerful political pressures as he follows tangled threads involving…

From Annette's 3 favorite reads in 2023.