House Of Wives by Simon Choa-Johnston - Soon at Swindon Books

Dropping 4 May 2016. 

more ...http://www.bukowskiagency.com/Wives.htm

Also see Simon's blog "The House that Opium built" ... http://simonjohnston.ca/Blog.php

The House of Wives

a novel by Simon Choa-Johnston

TWO WOMEN COMPETE FOR THE AFFECTIONS OF THEIR OPIUM-MERCHANT HUSBAND IN A TALE OF FRIENDSHIP, FORTUNE AND RIVALRY IN COLONIAL HONG KONG

Simon came to Hong Kong for a visit in  2014.  More here ... http://gwulo.com/atom/14083

In 1862, a young Jew from Calcutta named Emanuel Belilios leaves his dutiful wife Semah and sets sail for Hong Kong to make his fortune in the opium trade. There he grows into a prosperous and respectable merchant, eventually falling in love with his Chinese business partner's daughter Pearl, a delicate beauty twenty years his junior. As a wedding present, he builds for her the most magnificent mansion in Hong Kong. Then Semah arrives unannounced from Calcutta to take her place as mistress of the house.

Inspired by the lives of Choa-Johnston's ancestors, The House of Wives is an unforgettable novel about the machinations of the early opium trade, and about two remarkable women determined to secure a dynasty for their children in the tumultuous British Crown Colony, where the interests of the Near East and the Far East would clash for years to come.

“Simon Johnston has written a rollicking great novel that kept me turning the pages so fast they almost burst into flames. With a powerful and lush sense of place, this story of love, opium, and an exotic city will leave its mark on you as it did on me. Sublime storytelling.” —TERRY FALLIS, author of No Relation and Poles Apart

“The achievement of this epic novel is that it will not leave you alone—it will call to you (even in the night) to return to its colourful, daring and sometimes outrageous characters and to keep up with them until they are ready to let you go. What a feat of artistry and storytelling!” —JOSEPH KERTES, author of Winter Tulips and Gratitude

“In this richly imagined tale, Simon Choa-Johnston fleshes out the bones of his exotic ancestry and gives it the theatrical sweep of opera – engrossing.” —PLUM JOHNSON, Charles Taylor Prize-winning author of They Left Us Everything