City Like Water

The city you grew up in is gone, as if sunk to the bottom of the ocean. So much has vanished with it – counterfeit watches, streets echoing with the sound of stilettos, and even some of your classmates and teachers. Then the disappearances come closer to home. Your mother joins a housewives’ protest over fake lotus roots only to be turned into a statue by the police. Your father is quietly absorbed into the enormous TV gifted by the government, reappearing in the background of soap operas. And didn’t you once have a little sister, before she flew away? As the police go undercover and transform your neighbourhood into a violent labyrinth you can no longer navigate, where does this leave you? Lucid, nightmarish and indelible, City Like Water is a wondrous tale of a city not so different from your own. > ‘For all its undefined setting and its allegorical atmosphere, City Like Water > brims with specific details – for instance, oblique references to umbrellas, > emblems of political protest – reminding us that the storytelling here, too, > is fuelled by rage. In her translation, Bruce once again delivers an English > version infused with both beauty and terror, showing how easily the language > of dreams can become the language of nightmares.’ — Ángel Gurría-Quintana, > Financial Times > ‘Dorothy Tse’s stunning novella City Like Water fictionalizes the quiet > dissent of a city unravelling.… Her poetic prose is lusciously translated from > Chinese by Natascha Bruce, who previously collaborated with Tse on her > groundbreaking debut novel, Owlish. Tse’s work refuses to forget what has > often been censored, observing the surreal within the mundane. City Like Water > reminds us to pay careful attention.’ — Annie Hayter, Big Issue