UQP acquires new novel from award-winning author Siang Lu

UQP is delighted to announce the acquisition, via Brendan Fredericks of BFredericksPR, of a new novel from Siang Lu whose debut, The Whitewash, won the QLA Glendower Award for an Emerging Writer, was recommended as one of Booktopia’s Best Books of 2022, and won the 2023 ABIA for Best Audiobook.

Ghost Cities – inspired by the vacant, uninhabited megacities of China – follows multiple narratives, including one in which a young man named Xiang is fired from his job as a translator at Sydney’s Chinese Consulate after it is discovered he doesn’t speak a word of Chinese and has been relying entirely on Google Translate for his work. Gradually we learn how his relocation to one such ghost city is connected to a parallel odyssey in which an ancient Emperor creates a thousand doubles of Himself, a mountain gains sentience, and a tale in which every book in the known Empire is destroyed – then recreated, page by page and book by book – all in the name of love and art. Allegorical and imaginative, Ghost Cities will appeal to readers of Haruki Murakami and Italo Calvino.

Siang Lu says:

‘It’s an honour to have found a home for my second book with UQP, the three-time ABIA Small Publisher of the Year. Their boldness of vision, their willingness to take literary risks, and their championing of diverse voices are traits that I value most highly.’

Publisher Aviva Tuffield says:

‘Ghost Cities confirms yet again that Siang Lu is one of this country’s sharpest and most ambitious new writers. As with The Whitewash his new novel is epic in scope, razor-sharp in its skewering of institutional power, and expansive in terms of its imaginative range. And, yet again, this novel is often laugh-out-loud funny.’

About Siang Lu

Siang Lu is the award-winning author of The Whitewash, and the co-creator of The Beige Index. The Whitewash won Audiobook of the Year at the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards and the Glendower Emerging Writer Award at the Queensland Literary Awards, and was shortlisted at the NSW Premiers Literary Awards. His writing has appeared in KYD, Pedestrian, Southerly and Westerly. He has been a speaker at writers festivals around Australia. Siang holds a Master of Letters from the University of Sydney and has written for television on Malaysia’s Astro network. Siang is based in Brisbane, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His website is: https://www.siang-lu.com/

For more information contact Jean Smith at jean.smith@uqp.com.au or 07 3346 7932