Book Launch & In Conversation with Emma Pei Yin When Sleeping Women Wake
6pm, Wednesday 25 June
Harry Hartog ANU Campus
Acton, ACT, 2601
An epic and emotional story of three spirited women - a mother, her daughter, their maid - during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong
1941. The wealthy Tang family has settled in Hong Kong after fleeing Shanghai. As the First Wife of the family, Mingzhu leads a glamorous but lonely existence - mothering the son of her husband's concubine, overseeing her daughter Qiang's education, and directing their household of servants, including her long-time confidante, Biyu.
When the Japanese invade the island, the three women's paths wildly diverge. Mingzhu's affinity for languages spares her physical labour but she's coerced into serving an enemy captain. Qiang and Biyu suffer brutal factory work and food rations until an encounter with the East River Column Resistance fighters separates them. As war rages around them, each woman holds onto the hope that the others are alive. Can they fight for their freedom and still find their way back to each other?
Emma Pei Yin
Emma Pei Yin is an Australian-Hong Kong Chinese writer and editor. Her work has been featured in publications such as Mekong Review, Being Asian Australian, HerCanberra, Aniko Press, The Hong Kong Review and Books+Publishing. In 2023, BookPeople and Penguin Random House Australia nominated her as Bookseller of the Year. That same year, her manuscript, Chasing Echoes in the Rain, was shortlisted for the Allen & Unwin Voices from the Intersection Mentorship Programme. She lives and works on Ngunnawal Country with her partner and their extremely barky dachshund, Lady. When Sleeping Women Wake is her first novel
Ayesha Inoon
Ayesha Inoon is a Sri Lankan-Australian writer whose work is shaped by her rich cultural heritage and lived experience. Her debut novel, Untethered—winner of the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize and highly commended in both the 2024 ACT Book of the Year and the ACT Literary Awards for Fiction—draws partly from her own journey as an immigrant Muslim woman. Her feature articles have appeared in SBS Australia, The Sunday Times Sri Lanka, Serendib, and Explore Sri Lanka. Ayesha’s highly anticipated second novel is due in 2026.