‘Set during the edgy handover period when Hong Kong was poised to cede colonial possession and return to China, it is partly a haunting and uneasy love story, partly a subtle exploration of cultural and political tensions. Its portrayal of Hong Kong is remarkably vivid and Nelson’s prose is elegant and freighted with exquisite perception.

It displays a highly developed aesthetic sensibility and offers marvellous portrayals of characters caught up in a fascinating transitional moment.’

"...the tone one of sensuous melancholy."

‘Alice Nelson, who was shortlisted for the 2004 Australian/Vogel Award. is a literary writer. Her new novel The Last Sky is about stories and how they define us, but Nelson seems most entranced with language and writing. Set in Hong Kong, her descriptions of the city are superb, the tone one of sensuous melancholy.

Maya, an Australian writer and academic, is in Hong Kong with her archaeologist husband Joseph. He is away doing fieldwork in China for much of the time, while she wanders the streets of this very foreign city. Maya befriends a Chinese bookseller who tells her a story about a Russian Jew with whom he’d been in love, and Maya’s re-imagining of Ada Lang’s life in Shanghai and Hong Kong forms an intriguing subplot. Through the stories Maya tells about others she slowly begins to understand her own story and her troubled marriage.’