Hong Kong

Hong Kong is the primary backdrop of the novel. Ava moves here a month prior to the start of the novel. Because she has been unhappy in Dublin, she convinces herself that moving to a new and unfamiliar place will solve her troubles. However, life in Hong Kong quickly proves unwelcoming and unsatisfying to her. Ava does not meet ready hostility, yet her circumstances make her feel like a powerless outsider. She teaches English for a low wage and lives in a squalid flat with roommates she does not like. Even after she moves in with Julian, she does not engage with her greater surroundings. Rather, the apartment lets her hide from her reality in Hong Kong.

Ava starts to experience Hong Kong differently after she and Edith start dating. Unlike Ava, Edith is more ready to explore the world and experience life outside the parameters of...