July 5th, 2018
Song

Song is just a boy when he sets out from Lishui village in China. Brimming with courage and ambition, he leaves behind his impoverished broken family hoping he’ll make his fortune and return home. Chasing tales of sugarcane, rubber and gold, Song embarks upon a perilous voyage across the oceans to the British colony of Guiana, but once there he discovers riches are not so easy to come by and he is forced into labouring as an indentured plantation worker.

This is only the beginning of Song’s life, but as he finds himself between places and between peoples, and increasingly aware that the circumstances of birth carry more weight than accomplishments or good deeds, Song fears he may live as an outsider forever. This is a sweeping historical epic, following one boy’s journey to find his fortune from the rice fields of China to the rainforest of Guiana.

CNTraveller Column

Articles

November 2017
Beside the sacred waters

“When it comes to culture and cuisine, Tokyo looks to Kyoto. And Kyoto? It looks to Ise-Shima.”

September 2017
Beautiful South

“Downstairs there was a garage with a tractor, which is now the living room. The dining room was where he kept the chickens.”

November 20th, 2016
Beyond the honeymoon

Predictably, perhaps, it was simple pleasures that won the day: outdoor showers, hermit crabs, spending days on end without shoes and building sand castles.

August 27th, 2016
Take a deep breath...

“There are no tanks, no cumbersome jackets, no tubes and no gauges. Freedom.”