about me

This section should be called "about the book" because really, that's what we are all about here, aren't we ?

Right.

I focused on names because this is a book about identity, culture, words and tags - that inner lexicon we have about success and failure. I think that as you read on you will realise that from a Chinese point of view (which this book was written from) as opposed to a western one, the name Tamerlane is exotic.

My own name Hsiau Hsia Moo, may sound exotic to a westerner BUT among Chinese, which there are 1.4 billion in China alone and more than 40 million worldwide, about whom this story is written indirectly, it is nothing special. The experiences encapsulated here though, are unique, as is that of every foreigner trying to transplant him or herself among people who are not only ignorant of them but OCCASIONALLY resistant to the idea of "outsiders" living amongst them.

It is not one of those works that will strike you with its immediacy, nor is it intended to. Because it is a "roman a clef" it reads more like a memoir as opposed to a novel.

Having said that, I thank you in advance for checking it out.

* I am happy to read, review and back the work of anyone who does so for me. Usually I sample one new work a day. On good days, as many as three.

So if you have already read, reviewed and backed mine please jog my memory (about a week later at the latest) so that I may get down to returning the favour.

favourite books

"The Black Swan" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
"Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer
"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
"Rage of Angels" by Sydney Sheldon

my websites