The Impossible City

A Hong Kong Memoir

By: Karen Cheung

Narrated by: Karen Cheung

Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

A boldly rendered—and deeply intimate—account of Hong Kong today, from a resilient young woman whose stories explore what it means to survive in a city teeming with broken promises.

“[A] pulsing debut . . . about what it means to find your place in a city as it vanishes before your eyes.”—The New York Times Book Review

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post

Hong Kong is known as a place of extremes: a former colony of the United Kingdom that now exists at the margins of an ascendant China; a city rocked by mass protests, where residents rally—often in vain—against threats to their fundamental freedoms. But it is also misunderstood, and often romanticized. Drawing from her own experience reporting on the politics and culture of her hometown, as well as interviews with musicians, protesters, and writers who have watched their home transform, Karen Cheung gives us a rare insider’s view of this remarkable city at a pivotal moment—for Hong Kong and, ultimately, for herself.

Born just before the handover to China in 1997, Cheung grew up questioning what version of Hong Kong she belonged to. Not quite at ease within the middle-class, cosmopolitan identity available to her at her English-speaking international school, she also resisted the conservative values of her deeply traditional, often dysfunctional family.

Through vivid and character-rich stories, Cheung braids a dual narrative of her own coming of age alongside that of her generation. With heartbreaking candor, she recounts her yearslong struggle to find reliable mental health care in a city reeling from the traumatic aftermath of recent protests. Cheung also captures moments of miraculous triumph, documenting Hong Kong’s vibrant counterculture and taking us deep into its indie music and creative scenes. Inevitably, she brings us to the protests, where her understanding of what it means to belong to Hong Kong finally crystallized.

An exhilarating blend of memoir and reportage, The Impossible City charts the parallel journeys of both a young woman and a city as they navigate the various, sometimes contradictory paths of coming into one’s own.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL

©2022 Karen Cheung (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Through [Cheung’s] graceful writing . . . we learn about Hong Kong’s many different worlds and social strata, and her struggles to find her place. . . . Her lyrical book is part diary and part love letter to her hometown.”—The Washington Post

“A moving account of a Millennial who watches the free and international city in which she was born and raised slowly devolve into an oppressed society . . . A deeply felt lamentation about a flawed, yet free, society becoming subsumed by authoritarianism.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“In her pulsing debut memoir, The Impossible City, Karen Cheung writes eloquently about what it means to find your place in a city as it vanishes before your eyes. . . . Interspersed throughout this narrative are her intimate conversations with friends, fellow protesters, musicians and former classmates…. For far too long, faraway interests have claimed to speak for Hong Kong. It’s time to let Hong Kongers, in all their multitudes, speak for themselves.”—The New York Times Book Review

Raw look

Karen Cheung's memoir is a raw and real look at growing up in Hong Kong during some wild times. She takes us through the city's different vibes, from bougie expat haunts to the gritty, authentic corners where she found her identity. Cheung keeps it 💯 about the mental health struggles and housing crisis faced by Hong Kongers, and how the 2019 protests shook things up. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the real Hong Kong, not just the glossy tourist version.

Heart-wrenchingly intimate

A unique personal journey in a once-of-lifetime experience. But Hong Kong is not lost or disappeared, I am sure it will morph into something else, like the rest of China. I am pretty sure a someone as thorough & detailed as Karen can tell similar stories of Shanghai in early half of 2022 or Beijing this Dec. nevertheless a book worth reading!

Pretentiously mediocre

The author insists on being cool, trendy, different, non- white. She is just boringly trying to fit with a subculture she herself makes sound mediocre, while clearly not understanding that readers who bought this book were interested in the Hong King story written by an educated local person, not in the whining of a self-absorbed teenager.

The monotonous reading tone adds one layer to the pain of finishing this book.