Hong Kong, 1995. Life is surreal, swift, and out of control, as the city races toward the inevitable moment, the "hand-over" to China in 1997. Here are lives and loves in a changing world, chronicled by one of Hong Kong's leading novelists. With the publication of her third book, Hong Kong Rose, Xu Xi ranks as the foremost English-language writer to capture the reality of contemporary Hong Kong in fiction. In The Unwalled City her quiet, plainspoken prose ably evokes the tenor of life during those historical years. Resisting the urge to exorcize or "orientalize" the plot, characters or place, Xu Xi has crafted a memorable tale of enduring power.