When Sleeping Women Wake
On sale
17th June 2025
Price: £20
In this compelling historical debut, three extraordinary women are forced on a journey of survival during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II.
Hong Kong, 1941. Following the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the wealthy Tang family flee to Hong Kong, believing it to be protected under British occupation. As the First Wife of the family, Mingzhu leads a sheltered – if lonely – existence overseeing her daughter Qiang’s education, resisting the hostility of her husband’s concubine, while managing the household alongside her devoted maid, Biyu.
But when the Japanese army invade, the three women are scattered. Though Mingzhu’s affinity for languages spares her from physical labour, she is coerced into working for a Japanese captain. Qiang and Biyu escape the island, only to be forced into factory work, until an encounter with the East River Column Resistance fighters separates them once more. The longer the brutal occupation lasts, the more determined the women are to resist.
And as war rages around the world, each is holding onto the hope that the other is alive.
Beautifully told and compulsively written, When Sleeping Women Wake is an utterly transporting story of female resistance and untold bravery, at once epic and intimate, heartbreaking and hopeful.
Hong Kong, 1941. Following the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the wealthy Tang family flee to Hong Kong, believing it to be protected under British occupation. As the First Wife of the family, Mingzhu leads a sheltered – if lonely – existence overseeing her daughter Qiang’s education, resisting the hostility of her husband’s concubine, while managing the household alongside her devoted maid, Biyu.
But when the Japanese army invade, the three women are scattered. Though Mingzhu’s affinity for languages spares her from physical labour, she is coerced into working for a Japanese captain. Qiang and Biyu escape the island, only to be forced into factory work, until an encounter with the East River Column Resistance fighters separates them once more. The longer the brutal occupation lasts, the more determined the women are to resist.
And as war rages around the world, each is holding onto the hope that the other is alive.
Beautifully told and compulsively written, When Sleeping Women Wake is an utterly transporting story of female resistance and untold bravery, at once epic and intimate, heartbreaking and hopeful.
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