- Miles Franklin Literary Award 2025 · Winner
Ghost Cities
Ghost Cities
Siang Lu (born 1986)
English editions
Written in EnglishGhost Cities
Summit Books · United States · August 2026 · Hardcover · 304 pages
Ghost Cities
University of Queensland Press · Australia · 30 April 2024 · Paperback · 304 pages
Ghost Cities
Simon & Schuster · United Kingdom · 13 August 2026 · Hardcover
Ghost Cities
Simon & Schuster · United Kingdom · 13 August 2026 · Paperback · 304 pages
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Xiang is sacked by the Chinese consulate in Sydney once it emerges that the man hired to translate can neither speak nor read Chinese and has been leaning on Google Translate. His story spreads online, and Baby Bao, an eccentric filmmaker, hires him for the publicity and takes him to Port Man Tou, one of China's empty ghost cities, which Bao has filled with actors for a film that will run 27 hours. Interleaved with Xiang's story is the film's subject: a paranoid ancient emperor who makes a thousand copies of himself, outlaws chickens after his father dies choking on a chicken bone and names a baby his food taster. Other threads involve a mountain that comes alive, a chess-playing machine hiding something deadly, and an empire's books burned and then rewritten for love and art.
AI-generated summary
About the book
- Form
- Novel
- Genres
- Satire, Speculative (assigned by AI)
- Set in
- Australia, China
- First published
- 2024
- Author's age
- 38 when first published
- ISBN
-
9780702268496 (University of Queensland Press, Australia)
9781398559875 (Simon & Schuster, United Kingdom)
9781398559882 (Simon & Schuster, United Kingdom)
9781668241813 (Summit Books, United States)
- More
- Wikidata