Year of the Woman

KwayFay was once a Cockraoch Child, a homeless scavenger on Hong Kongs waterfronts. Now she lives in a squatter shack on the mountain slopes, and commutes daily to her job as a lowly office clerk. She survives by paying bribes if she has to, and keeping silent when abused. Her only ally is Grandmothers Ghost.There is a tense, pregnant feel to Hong Kong, for this is the time just before the Handover, when the Peoples Republic of China will repossess the Crown Colony. Hongs and Triads underworld organisations that are above the law are concerned, since Chinas policy is to eliminate criminal cliques.The head of a Triad learns of the impoverished no-family girl who talks to ghosts, and wonders if she could hold the answer to the questions of an uncertain future. Except that superstition is also forbidden by the incoming regime: the girl might be the last chance for his Triads survival but believing in her might prove to be its destruction.