NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A veteran journalist in Hong Kong is caught in a shadowy web
of truth and betrayal as he investigates the disappearance of a student protester in this
menacing atmospheric novel written with shades of Graham Greene and Patricia Highsmith”
(Sunday Times) from the celebrated author of The Forgiven—now a major motion picture starring
Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes. Osborne is a startlingly good observer of privilege noting
the rites and rituals of the upper classes with unerring precision and an undercurrent of
malice.”—Katie Kitamura The New York Times Book Review on Beautiful Animals ONE OF THE BEST
BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post CrimeReads After two decades as a journalist in Hong
Kong ex-pat Englishman Adrian Gyle has very little to show for it. Evenings are whiled away
with soup dumplings and tea at Fung Shing the restaurant downstairs from his home on Java Road
watching the city—once overflowing with wine dinners and private members’ clubs—erupt in
violence as pro-democracy demonstrations hit ever closer to home. Watching from the skyrises is
Adrian’s old friend Jimmy Tang the scion of one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest families. Just as
Gyle prepares to turn his back on Hong Kong he finds one last intrigue: the mysterious Rebecca
a student involved in the protests and the latest of Jimmy’s reckless dalliances. But when
Rebecca goes missing and Jimmy hides Gyle feels that old familiar urge to investigate. Piecing
together Rebecca’s final days and hours Gyle must tread carefully through a volatile world of
friendship and betrayal where personal loyalties vanish like the city he once knew so well. On
Java Road tells the story of a man between the fault lines of old worlds and new orders in
pursuit of the truth.
