City Like Water

The city you grew up in is gone, as if sunk to the bottom of the ocean. So much has vanished with it – counterfeit watches, streets echoing with the sound of stilettos, and even some of your classmates and teachers. Then the disappearances come closer to home. Your mother joins a housewives’ protest over fake lotus roots only to be turned into a statue by the police. Your father is quietly absorbed into the enormous TV gifted by the government, reappearing in the background of soap operas. And didn’t you once have a little sister, before she flew away? As the police go undercover and transform your neighbourhood into a violent labyrinth you can no longer navigate, where does this leave you? Lucid, nightmarish and indelible, City Like Water is a wondrous tale of a city not so different from your own.

‘For all its undefined setting and its allegorical atmosphere, City Like Water brims with specific details – for instance, oblique references to umbrellas, emblems of political protest – reminding us that the storytelling here, too, is fuelled by rage. In her translation, Bruce once again delivers an English version infused with both beauty and terror, showing how easily the language of dreams can become the language of nightmares.’ — Ángel Gurría-Quintana, Financial Times

‘Dorothy Tse’s stunning novella City Like Water fictionalizes the quiet dissent of a city unravelling.… Her poetic prose is lusciously translated from Chinese by Natascha Bruce, who previously collaborated with Tse on her groundbreaking debut novel, Owlish. Tse’s work refuses to forget what has often been censored, observing the surreal within the mundane. City Like Water reminds us to pay careful attention.’ — Annie Hayter, Big Issue