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On Java Road
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 thecelebrated 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 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 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 onceknew 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.
“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 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 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 onceknew 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.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published August 2, 2022
210 people are currently reading
5,284 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Osborne
32books541followersLawrence Osborne is the author of seven critically acclaimed novels, including The Forgiven (now a major motion picture starring Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain), and Only to Sleep: A Philip Marlowe Novel, a New York Times Notable Book and nominated for an Edgar Award, as well as six books of nonfiction, including Bangkok Days. He has led a nomadic life, living in Paris, New York, Mexico, and Istanbul, and he currently resides in Bangkok.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 233 reviews
January 21, 2023
On Java Road is just the type of dangerous and compelling mystery I was searching for. With the atmospheric streets of Hong Kong as its backdrop, I was fully immersed in this time and place. It’s a slower burn, developing layer by analytical layer, with stunning writing.
What an experience reading On Java Road was. I can already imagine this as a movie because it jumps off the pages with its extraordinary and cinematic visuals. I’ll definitely be checking out The Forgiven next.
Thank you, Random House, for the gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: and instagram:
What an experience reading On Java Road was. I can already imagine this as a movie because it jumps off the pages with its extraordinary and cinematic visuals. I’ll definitely be checking out The Forgiven next.
Thank you, Random House, for the gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: and instagram:
July 21, 2022
In terms of genre, Lawrence Osborne's On Java Road is a mystery novel, but in my experience as a reader, the mystery didn't drive the novel. What kept me reading was the exploration of the effects on different communities of the British return of Hong Kong to China. The book is set several years into that process when younger Hong Kong residents are demonstrating for democracy and the Chinese government is beginning the crackdown it had promised Britain wouldn't happen.
The central characters are Adrian Gyle, an aging British journalist and long-time ex-pat, and Jimmy Tang, a member of Hong Kong's wealthiest classes. The two became friends during their college years in Britain and have a pleasant, if imbalanced, relationship years later in Hong Kong. Jimmy's wealth leaves Adrian, not dependent on Jimmy, but aware of his own, much narrower world. The two meet for lunches and dinners. Jimmy occasionally treats Adrian to a bespoke suit he'll have no occasion to wear and introduces Adrian to some of his many paramours.
The mystery plot focuses on the death of Jimmy's latest flame, Rebecca, who was a student activist about thirty years younger than him. Ostensibly she committed suicide, but at the moment staged suicides are one of the ways police are eliminating student activists and Jimmy may have his own reasons for wanting a an unequivocal end to the relationship. As Adrian investigates Rebecca's death, his relationship with Jimmy becomes increasingly strained.
But as I said, the real heart of the novel for me was its temporal setting. Adrian has his British passport and is wondering when or if it will become advisable for him to leave Hong Kong as the violence and press crackdown worsen. In order to protect his and his family's wealth, Jimmy has to offer visible, if token, support for the Chinese regime, while determining how soon he will have to leave Hong Kong and how he will protect his wealth. A pair of Adrian's friends, jaded reporters who see the Chinese absorption of Hong Kong as inevitable and not necessarily bad, add another interesting perspective to the mix. Finally there are the Chinese students protesting and residents of Hong Kong who welcome mainland control and attack those they see as insufficiently committed to the national government.
Osborne has a gorgeous prose style that evokes his settings with precision and affect. In other words, even though the mystery may not carry the novel, Osborne keeps readers engaged regardless.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.
The central characters are Adrian Gyle, an aging British journalist and long-time ex-pat, and Jimmy Tang, a member of Hong Kong's wealthiest classes. The two became friends during their college years in Britain and have a pleasant, if imbalanced, relationship years later in Hong Kong. Jimmy's wealth leaves Adrian, not dependent on Jimmy, but aware of his own, much narrower world. The two meet for lunches and dinners. Jimmy occasionally treats Adrian to a bespoke suit he'll have no occasion to wear and introduces Adrian to some of his many paramours.
The mystery plot focuses on the death of Jimmy's latest flame, Rebecca, who was a student activist about thirty years younger than him. Ostensibly she committed suicide, but at the moment staged suicides are one of the ways police are eliminating student activists and Jimmy may have his own reasons for wanting a an unequivocal end to the relationship. As Adrian investigates Rebecca's death, his relationship with Jimmy becomes increasingly strained.
But as I said, the real heart of the novel for me was its temporal setting. Adrian has his British passport and is wondering when or if it will become advisable for him to leave Hong Kong as the violence and press crackdown worsen. In order to protect his and his family's wealth, Jimmy has to offer visible, if token, support for the Chinese regime, while determining how soon he will have to leave Hong Kong and how he will protect his wealth. A pair of Adrian's friends, jaded reporters who see the Chinese absorption of Hong Kong as inevitable and not necessarily bad, add another interesting perspective to the mix. Finally there are the Chinese students protesting and residents of Hong Kong who welcome mainland control and attack those they see as insufficiently committed to the national government.
Osborne has a gorgeous prose style that evokes his settings with precision and affect. In other words, even though the mystery may not carry the novel, Osborne keeps readers engaged regardless.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.
December 28, 2022
I received this book as a birthday present earlier this year. Since it wasn’t my own choice I was unsure what my reaction would be, but it turned out a good fit for my taste. The novel is set in Hong Kong and, whilst no date is specified, the events take place to the background of what seems to be the pro-democracy protests of 2019.
I’ve seen this book described as a crime/mystery novel. Whilst there are elements of that, I’m not convinced those descriptors are completely accurate.
The novel is centred around tensions in a long standing friendship. The lead character is a 50-ish British journalist, Adrian Gyle. He has an old university pal, Jimmy Tang, but whilst Gyle is an ordinary journalist, Tang is a member of Hong Kong’s wealthy elite. The difference in their status means that their friendship is an unequal one. The unspoken tensions between them are brought to the boil because Tang has an affair with a 23-year-old student, Rebecca To, who is from an even wealthier family. Tang’s affair is risky on two counts. Whilst he can have one-night stands with social climbers, a prolonged affair with Rebecca risks offending her powerful father. Secondly, Rebecca is a “front-liner� in the pro-democracy protests. To preserve their wealth and status, the elite families must be seen to back the CCP, even if they privately support the protests.
For me, Gyle was a sympathetic character but a realistic one. He knows that in a country like China there is no realistic way that ordinary people can challenge either the government or the business elite. Whilst he sympathises with the protestors he is too worldly-wise to be overly moralistic about the political situation. At one point in the book he has dinner with an Australian businessman and a Sri-Lankan journalist, both of whom are pro-CCP in their views.
"It depends what you want to be enchanted by or what you want to be disenchanted with. The kind of people who were in love with the idea of a rising China tended to be the ones who relished the idea of a declining America and who consequently loved to pronounce on the latter’s problems. China’s problems they tended not to know so much about."
On Java Road isn’t a Hollywood-style good v. evil story. Gyle is too morally equivocal for that. I thought though, that it was very well-written, and the ending was extremely effective.
I’ve seen this book described as a crime/mystery novel. Whilst there are elements of that, I’m not convinced those descriptors are completely accurate.
The novel is centred around tensions in a long standing friendship. The lead character is a 50-ish British journalist, Adrian Gyle. He has an old university pal, Jimmy Tang, but whilst Gyle is an ordinary journalist, Tang is a member of Hong Kong’s wealthy elite. The difference in their status means that their friendship is an unequal one. The unspoken tensions between them are brought to the boil because Tang has an affair with a 23-year-old student, Rebecca To, who is from an even wealthier family. Tang’s affair is risky on two counts. Whilst he can have one-night stands with social climbers, a prolonged affair with Rebecca risks offending her powerful father. Secondly, Rebecca is a “front-liner� in the pro-democracy protests. To preserve their wealth and status, the elite families must be seen to back the CCP, even if they privately support the protests.
For me, Gyle was a sympathetic character but a realistic one. He knows that in a country like China there is no realistic way that ordinary people can challenge either the government or the business elite. Whilst he sympathises with the protestors he is too worldly-wise to be overly moralistic about the political situation. At one point in the book he has dinner with an Australian businessman and a Sri-Lankan journalist, both of whom are pro-CCP in their views.
"It depends what you want to be enchanted by or what you want to be disenchanted with. The kind of people who were in love with the idea of a rising China tended to be the ones who relished the idea of a declining America and who consequently loved to pronounce on the latter’s problems. China’s problems they tended not to know so much about."
On Java Road isn’t a Hollywood-style good v. evil story. Gyle is too morally equivocal for that. I thought though, that it was very well-written, and the ending was extremely effective.
September 7, 2022
From its outset� On Java Road� reeks of danger and an ominous sense of disquiet.
� In fact, at the beginning of that summer, when the disturbances had first erupted, I felt as though I were being woken from a deep and meaningless sleep.The city I had grown used to was shattered the first moment I saw one of my neighbors wander on to Java Road at midnight in a white sleeveless shirt wielding a butcher’s knife�.I think he recognized me too, but I was invisible to him in that moment…because he was looking for protesters to intimidate, and a Chinese civil ward doesn’t automatically include European drifters.�
This observation introduces us to both our narrator, Adrian Gyle and to the politically volatile Hong Kong during the twenty fifth anniversary of the British handover of that city.Adrian is a British journalist who has lived in Hong Kong for more than twenty years. He exists professionally in a space between mediocrity and relevance. He was a � scholarship boy� in England who formed an enduring relationship with Jimmy Tang, the son of a wealthy Hong Kong family. Their friendship enables Adrian to move on the margins of a privileged society although still remaining an outsider.
The streets of Hong Kong are disrupted by student demonstrations, widespread unrest and governmental suppression of protests that culminate in violence. Fear of uttering the wrong words while unseen ears are listening has produced a pervasive sense of paranoia.
Adrian and Jimmy’s friendship propels the plot forward and opens a window into class and social schism in the city.Jimmy, as a scion of wealth and privilege, is entitled in his outlook and careless in his social and political relationships. Although married, he has engaged in a number of ill considered dalliances. His current mistress, Rebecca To, is much younger than Jimmy and also comes from wealth.However, she is active in student protests.Adrian has met her through Jimmy and admires her courage and principles.
The potential for an explosive situation soon becomes apparent.Jimmy’s family is entrenched in the Communist Party and disapproves of the relationship on both personal and political grounds. Adrian quietly resents Jimmy’s disregard of social constraints. When Jimmy’s affair becomes public, the embarrassment has immediate consequences, culminating in Rebecca’s sudden disappearance. Adrian wonders if Jimmy is responsible for her suddenly vanishing and focuses his investigative skills to delve further.
The investigation elevates the novel into a multilayered examination of class differences, conflicting value systems and moral choices. As the plot unwinds, the relationship of the two friends becomes filled with simmering resentments and long repressed differences that mirror the political and social disruptions afflicting polities worldwide. The author has blended milieu, location and psychological unease to create a sinuously contemplative work that prompts the reader to consider the extent of courage necessary to preserve both friendship and societal institutions.
� In fact, at the beginning of that summer, when the disturbances had first erupted, I felt as though I were being woken from a deep and meaningless sleep.The city I had grown used to was shattered the first moment I saw one of my neighbors wander on to Java Road at midnight in a white sleeveless shirt wielding a butcher’s knife�.I think he recognized me too, but I was invisible to him in that moment…because he was looking for protesters to intimidate, and a Chinese civil ward doesn’t automatically include European drifters.�
This observation introduces us to both our narrator, Adrian Gyle and to the politically volatile Hong Kong during the twenty fifth anniversary of the British handover of that city.Adrian is a British journalist who has lived in Hong Kong for more than twenty years. He exists professionally in a space between mediocrity and relevance. He was a � scholarship boy� in England who formed an enduring relationship with Jimmy Tang, the son of a wealthy Hong Kong family. Their friendship enables Adrian to move on the margins of a privileged society although still remaining an outsider.
The streets of Hong Kong are disrupted by student demonstrations, widespread unrest and governmental suppression of protests that culminate in violence. Fear of uttering the wrong words while unseen ears are listening has produced a pervasive sense of paranoia.
Adrian and Jimmy’s friendship propels the plot forward and opens a window into class and social schism in the city.Jimmy, as a scion of wealth and privilege, is entitled in his outlook and careless in his social and political relationships. Although married, he has engaged in a number of ill considered dalliances. His current mistress, Rebecca To, is much younger than Jimmy and also comes from wealth.However, she is active in student protests.Adrian has met her through Jimmy and admires her courage and principles.
The potential for an explosive situation soon becomes apparent.Jimmy’s family is entrenched in the Communist Party and disapproves of the relationship on both personal and political grounds. Adrian quietly resents Jimmy’s disregard of social constraints. When Jimmy’s affair becomes public, the embarrassment has immediate consequences, culminating in Rebecca’s sudden disappearance. Adrian wonders if Jimmy is responsible for her suddenly vanishing and focuses his investigative skills to delve further.
The investigation elevates the novel into a multilayered examination of class differences, conflicting value systems and moral choices. As the plot unwinds, the relationship of the two friends becomes filled with simmering resentments and long repressed differences that mirror the political and social disruptions afflicting polities worldwide. The author has blended milieu, location and psychological unease to create a sinuously contemplative work that prompts the reader to consider the extent of courage necessary to preserve both friendship and societal institutions.
July 29, 2022
There’s no Lawrence Osborne book that I didn’t absolutely love, and this one is no exception. His writing is urbane, mercurial, and atmospheric—compellingly noir. As a British ex-pat residing in Bangkok, Osborne’s Asian settings for his novels are enveloping and alluring. His characters are typically lurid or naïve ex-pats themselves, and often deeply flawed in that alien culture way that gets them in trouble. ON JAVA ROAD is centrally about a friendship between a British journalist, Adrian Gyle, who has lived in Hong Kong for decades (he calls himself a hack), and his good friend, Jimmy Tang, a wealthy local elite. In Osborne’s usual measured voice and tone, a disappearance interferes, or threatens to interfere, with their friendship. What I enjoy so much about this writer is how the language itself tells the story.
Student protests against the extradition bill point the way to the darker side of Hong Kong politics. Adrian is covering some of these protests, and meets a rebel student half his age who is dating the married Jimmy. Adrian is intrigued by this woman, who is independent and unthreatened by Jimmy’s marital status and unimpressed by his wealth. However, when Tang’s power and potential betrayal comes knocking on Gyle’s door, Adrian’s investigative skills and inclination to delve further into sinister undercurrents in the city bring him to a precipice in his relationship with Jimmy.
I was immediately installed in Osborne’s rich and textured tale, and, as usual, riveted by the moody and sensual narrative. I read him for the prose as well as the story. “…I wondered just how fully I understood the tight-knit warp and weave of a society like Honk Kong: incestuous, gossipy, given to rumors and backstabbing, its money all wrapped up in a few clans, always ready to flee to foreign parts if the going gets rough.� Mmm…tasty from start to finish.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for sending an early copy for review.
Student protests against the extradition bill point the way to the darker side of Hong Kong politics. Adrian is covering some of these protests, and meets a rebel student half his age who is dating the married Jimmy. Adrian is intrigued by this woman, who is independent and unthreatened by Jimmy’s marital status and unimpressed by his wealth. However, when Tang’s power and potential betrayal comes knocking on Gyle’s door, Adrian’s investigative skills and inclination to delve further into sinister undercurrents in the city bring him to a precipice in his relationship with Jimmy.
I was immediately installed in Osborne’s rich and textured tale, and, as usual, riveted by the moody and sensual narrative. I read him for the prose as well as the story. “…I wondered just how fully I understood the tight-knit warp and weave of a society like Honk Kong: incestuous, gossipy, given to rumors and backstabbing, its money all wrapped up in a few clans, always ready to flee to foreign parts if the going gets rough.� Mmm…tasty from start to finish.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for sending an early copy for review.
July 4, 2022
Lawrence Osborne once again inhabits the mantle of Graham Greene. On Java Road has more than the usual infusion of historical interest against observance of the current condition, in this case, the state of Hong Kong on the 25th anniversary of the handover which has caused disruption and citywide unrest. Old hand journalist Adrian Gyle, who has covered HK for over 20 years, met Jimmy Tang while both were students in England. Jimmy, scion of a billionaire family insists on lavish lunches, rare wines, and furnishing Adrian with (unwanted) sartorial delights, and it is their "friendship" that fuels the narrative. Imbued with Osborne's trademark atmospheric pall, the reader gets more than bargained for thanks to an insider's knowledge of HK and how its elements clash and coalesce. I'll read anything he writes.
August 30, 2022
No one else writes “thrillers� as languid as Lawrence Osborne’s. His novels tend to be leisurely, slow-burn mysteries that could be mistaken for impeccably observed travel memoirs, except for the fact that usually there’s a dead body that needs hiding, finding or explaining. This one is set in Hong Kong and, once again, Osborne skillfully � and with exquisite prose � probes the nexus of community and character, and how where we are shapes who we are. My full review is in the New York Times Book Review.
February 5, 2023
2.5 Stars
October 17, 2022
Although this novel is primarily a reflection on friendship and the lost ideals of youth, what the author adds from its setting in time and place make it much more. It also qualifies in the crime fiction genre by virtue of the protagonist's search for the truth about a death, though that is something of an imperfect fit.
I found a through-line to this book, starting with and touching on . Osborne conveys the same sense of fascination with the "otherness" of these southeast/east Asian cities to the English journalists who are at the core of the books.
In this book there is a sort of mirror between the way in which time chips away at the friendship between Englishman Adrian Gyle and Hong Konger Jimmy Tang, and the gradual resorption of Hong Kong into a China without direct English connections. It is that overlay that makes the book so memorable. Osborne's writing is precise, with a sort of elegance to Adrian's observations of the conflict between pro-democracy students and pro-Beijing street gangs and police.
There is an ambivalence about the ending of the book which, upon reflection, I found appropriate to the story and the setting. The narration, by Michael Obiora, is well-suited to the book.
I found a through-line to this book, starting with and touching on . Osborne conveys the same sense of fascination with the "otherness" of these southeast/east Asian cities to the English journalists who are at the core of the books.
In this book there is a sort of mirror between the way in which time chips away at the friendship between Englishman Adrian Gyle and Hong Konger Jimmy Tang, and the gradual resorption of Hong Kong into a China without direct English connections. It is that overlay that makes the book so memorable. Osborne's writing is precise, with a sort of elegance to Adrian's observations of the conflict between pro-democracy students and pro-Beijing street gangs and police.
There is an ambivalence about the ending of the book which, upon reflection, I found appropriate to the story and the setting. The narration, by Michael Obiora, is well-suited to the book.
September 8, 2022
Five stars for the sense of place and time he created, as well as a certain timelessness.
Four stars for the literary quality of the writing.
Three stars for the plot, which promises a lot that it never quite delivers.
One thing Osborne does capture well is the way the carefree friendships of our youth that we thought would last forever can become difficult to maintain when the complications of adult life interfere. When this happens we are left feeling wistful and confused, but resigned to the inevitability of that loss of comradeship and bonhomie.
September 5, 2022
“It was the new reality and we were all in it together Whatever still existed of the boundaries between the police, the government the powerful families, and the media seemed to have been removed from one month to the next. The old Hong Kong of laws and judges in British wigs had been deconstructed overnight and in its place there had emerged a wild twilight totalitarian world in which rumor, hyperbole, hatred, tribalism, and supposition were regnant.�
Lawrence Osborne has an uncanny ability to write immersive novels about Americans or Brits who end up facing moral dilemmas in exotic locations far from home. That location itself � Bangkok in his last book The Glass Kingdom and now Hong Kong in On Java Road � becomes a character in its own right, rich with lush details and fragile melancholy.
Here, the narrator is Adrian Gyle, a not-to-well-known reporter, who has reached the pivotal age of 50 and perceives that he casts no shadow on the sidewalk. Although he has spent the last few decades filing freelance stories, he has begun to recognize that Hong Kong is declining, and its moral ambiguity is becoming more and more pronounced.
Take his old Cambridge friend, Jimmy Tang, for instance. Jimmy comes from a dynasty of shipping magnates, drinks the best liquors and has a particular passion for luxe suits that he freely buys for his himself and Adrian. Adrian witnesses all his excesses, including his married friend’s new “toy�, a young woman half his age, also from a prestigious family, who is part of the student rebellion.
When the young woman � someone Adrian imagines himself with if he were younger and in a better socioeconomic status � disappears, Adrian discovers that the unrest that permeates his adopted city also permeates his own being. Is his long and loyal friendship with Jimmy � which is repaid by access to some of the most connected parts of Hong Kong society � worth turning a blind eye on his excesses…particularly if the excesses might have led to foul play? And has he also been turning a blind eye to the attacks on the ideals of democracy and free press, which are overtly occurring in Hong Kong and perhaps less overtly, in the U.S. and Britain? Can he, in fact, stand up for himself and for what’s right or is the price too high?
The pace of On Java Road is languid and Lawrence Osborne takes his time getting to the crux of the story, and deliberately keeps the ambiguity going. Put another way, his aim is not to provide answers but instead to pose questions. The book affirms for me once again why I am a big Lawrence Osborne fan. Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
Lawrence Osborne has an uncanny ability to write immersive novels about Americans or Brits who end up facing moral dilemmas in exotic locations far from home. That location itself � Bangkok in his last book The Glass Kingdom and now Hong Kong in On Java Road � becomes a character in its own right, rich with lush details and fragile melancholy.
Here, the narrator is Adrian Gyle, a not-to-well-known reporter, who has reached the pivotal age of 50 and perceives that he casts no shadow on the sidewalk. Although he has spent the last few decades filing freelance stories, he has begun to recognize that Hong Kong is declining, and its moral ambiguity is becoming more and more pronounced.
Take his old Cambridge friend, Jimmy Tang, for instance. Jimmy comes from a dynasty of shipping magnates, drinks the best liquors and has a particular passion for luxe suits that he freely buys for his himself and Adrian. Adrian witnesses all his excesses, including his married friend’s new “toy�, a young woman half his age, also from a prestigious family, who is part of the student rebellion.
When the young woman � someone Adrian imagines himself with if he were younger and in a better socioeconomic status � disappears, Adrian discovers that the unrest that permeates his adopted city also permeates his own being. Is his long and loyal friendship with Jimmy � which is repaid by access to some of the most connected parts of Hong Kong society � worth turning a blind eye on his excesses…particularly if the excesses might have led to foul play? And has he also been turning a blind eye to the attacks on the ideals of democracy and free press, which are overtly occurring in Hong Kong and perhaps less overtly, in the U.S. and Britain? Can he, in fact, stand up for himself and for what’s right or is the price too high?
The pace of On Java Road is languid and Lawrence Osborne takes his time getting to the crux of the story, and deliberately keeps the ambiguity going. Put another way, his aim is not to provide answers but instead to pose questions. The book affirms for me once again why I am a big Lawrence Osborne fan. Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for enabling me to be an early reader in exchange for an honest review.
September 10, 2022
I really can’t say I enjoyed reading this book. It’s hyped as a mystery set in Hong Kong which sounded interesting.
British Adrian Gyle met wealthy Hong Kong Jimmy Tang at school in England. Now Adrian is a journalist in Hong Kong and has renewed his friendship with Jimmy.
Both characters are incredible unlikable and the book has nothing to show for it but some truly nonsensical dialogue.
I wasted several hours reading this book in which nothing happened.
British Adrian Gyle met wealthy Hong Kong Jimmy Tang at school in England. Now Adrian is a journalist in Hong Kong and has renewed his friendship with Jimmy.
Both characters are incredible unlikable and the book has nothing to show for it but some truly nonsensical dialogue.
I wasted several hours reading this book in which nothing happened.
November 20, 2022
A very Graham Greenely 3.5
November 5, 2023
ON JAVA ROAD plunges the reader into the life of a middle-aged, jaded, British expatriate journalist (Adrian Gyle) in post-colonial Hong Kong. Hong Kong has been home to Adrian since shortly after the 1997 Handover. He has thoroughly insinuated himself into various aspects of the city's life and culture, speaking Cantonese and Mandarin fluently.
Hong Kong is also the place where an old friend from Adrian's university days at Cambridge in the late 1980s resides and seemingly floats through life with relative ease in comparison to most denizens of that lively and mysterious city. His name: Jimmy Tang, "the scion of one of Hong Kong's wealthiest families." Theirs is an unequal friendship, which Lawrence Osborne illustrates in interesting ways throughout the novel. Both men had established a deep connection through the work they did together at Cambridge in translating a poem from one of China's enigmatic poets of the Tang Dynasty.
Adrian's life becomes rather complicated when Tang introduces him to Rebecca To, a university student 30 years his junior, who share a unique connection because, like Tang, Rebecca hails from one of Hong Kong's wealthiest and most privileged families. She comes across in the novel as someone who wants to make her mark in the world and shake things up a bit in Hong Kong. Hence, her involvement in the pro-democracy demonstrations that have recently blossomed in the city streets.
Though Tang is married, Rebecca is his "clandestine girlfriend. " Their relationships is a veiled secret lying just below the surface. Tang is a serial philander and loves to live la bonne vie, notwithstanding the tightening choke hold Beijing has been placing upon Hong Kong in recent years.
At some point in the novel, Rebecca goes missing and Tang goes to ground, which is uncharacteristic of him. Adrian feels compelled to try to find out what has happened to Rebecca, and in the process, the life he has managed to make for himself in Hong Kong is turned upside down.
ON JAVA ROAD is the second Lawrence Osborne novel it has been my pleasure to read. He has an unerring way of getting the reader quickly immersed in a story, so much so that one can't help but savor the experience, for his prose tends to strike the right tone. Besides with Hong Kong as the locale, caught up in the anti-Beijing protests, the drama is rich, spicy, and sparkling.
For anyone seeking escape from the M-F workday grind, look no further. Take the plunge and go with the flow.
Hong Kong is also the place where an old friend from Adrian's university days at Cambridge in the late 1980s resides and seemingly floats through life with relative ease in comparison to most denizens of that lively and mysterious city. His name: Jimmy Tang, "the scion of one of Hong Kong's wealthiest families." Theirs is an unequal friendship, which Lawrence Osborne illustrates in interesting ways throughout the novel. Both men had established a deep connection through the work they did together at Cambridge in translating a poem from one of China's enigmatic poets of the Tang Dynasty.
Adrian's life becomes rather complicated when Tang introduces him to Rebecca To, a university student 30 years his junior, who share a unique connection because, like Tang, Rebecca hails from one of Hong Kong's wealthiest and most privileged families. She comes across in the novel as someone who wants to make her mark in the world and shake things up a bit in Hong Kong. Hence, her involvement in the pro-democracy demonstrations that have recently blossomed in the city streets.
Though Tang is married, Rebecca is his "clandestine girlfriend. " Their relationships is a veiled secret lying just below the surface. Tang is a serial philander and loves to live la bonne vie, notwithstanding the tightening choke hold Beijing has been placing upon Hong Kong in recent years.
At some point in the novel, Rebecca goes missing and Tang goes to ground, which is uncharacteristic of him. Adrian feels compelled to try to find out what has happened to Rebecca, and in the process, the life he has managed to make for himself in Hong Kong is turned upside down.
ON JAVA ROAD is the second Lawrence Osborne novel it has been my pleasure to read. He has an unerring way of getting the reader quickly immersed in a story, so much so that one can't help but savor the experience, for his prose tends to strike the right tone. Besides with Hong Kong as the locale, caught up in the anti-Beijing protests, the drama is rich, spicy, and sparkling.
For anyone seeking escape from the M-F workday grind, look no further. Take the plunge and go with the flow.
August 27, 2022
This is exactly the kind of international thriller I like: quiet, well-informed, and owing a good deal to Graham Greene. I learned about it through the Molly Young's , which appears in my inbox every other week, courtesy of the New York Times
I can do no better than to copy Young's review in full:
I can do no better than to copy Young's review in full:
To open a new Lawrence Osborne book is to enter a maze of thrills from which there is no exit other than to finish the book in one sitting. Adrian is an English journalist. Jimmy is the scion of a wealthy Hong Kong family. The two met at Cambridge and bonded over the poetry of Li Bai. Now they both live in Hong Kong, where Jimmy gets involved with a young protester who subsequently vanishes, and Adrian � having developed a competing crush on the protester � can’t stop sticking his nose in places where it don’t belong.
Osborne’s novels have a material sensuality that leads to forceful cravings. After reading his earlier book “The Forgiven,� I needed Moroccan coffee served with a saucer of cardamom seeds. “The Glass Kingdom� initiated a temporary mania for skeleton flowers, whose petals turn transparent when touched by rain. I have an unfortunate history with cigars, and when a character in “On Java Road� retrieved a Cohiba from a walnut box, it took all my wits not to fire up Google Maps and search cigar lounge near me. Surely this is not what people mean when they refer to “the power of literature.� And yet it is a power of literature.
September 13, 2022
From the author of and comes another tale of a man out of place, struggling to make sense of his surroundings and his life. Adrian Gyle has been a journalist in Hong Kong for twenty years, mainly tooling around town, eating soupy dumplings, drinking casks of wine, and occasionally writing a society or investigative piece. It’s sometime in the not-so-distant but undetermined past, and pro-democracy protests have rocked the city. He spends time with Jimmy Tang, a socialite from his school days, sailing on yachts and going to lavish parties. He watches as Jimmy has an affair with Rebecca, a protestor and from another wealthy family. One day, Rebecca disappears and Jimmy is a suspect. Adrian is caught in the middle, maybe reporting and maybe turning in his friend.
The comparison to is an apt one. There’s the same sense of a man having lost his purpose, whiling away the days that stretch into months and years. Adrian has no direction, and as the story is told in the first person, we’re front and center to his descent, and perhaps his very end. The voice, while wordy and intellectual, is an accurate, genuine one. The descriptions of Hong Kong are very good, and the historical weaving of the protest also gave the novel a good deal of flavor.
I suppose Osborne is setting the scene, allowing Adrian to wallow all over town, making the point that nothing much is doing in the man’s life, that he’s merely an observer. It took a while to get to the disappearance, almost to the midpoint. I felt the language, thick with long, meandering sentences, made this a book for which concentration is crucial: lose a phrase and you’ll lose your place. That’s me, however: sometimes I read far too fast. But it’s shorter than most, so if you do feel a bit mired you don’t have long to go.
I enjoyed the ending, the Greene-like resolution that kind of isn’t a resolution, but more food for thought. We’re not meant to pity or empathize with the characters, just watch and see the sordid, questionable action. The whole thing felt foggy, murky, appropriate for the kind of story that he wanted to tell.
I’ve come to enjoy Osborne’s work and look forward to the next. This one’s worth it.
The comparison to is an apt one. There’s the same sense of a man having lost his purpose, whiling away the days that stretch into months and years. Adrian has no direction, and as the story is told in the first person, we’re front and center to his descent, and perhaps his very end. The voice, while wordy and intellectual, is an accurate, genuine one. The descriptions of Hong Kong are very good, and the historical weaving of the protest also gave the novel a good deal of flavor.
I suppose Osborne is setting the scene, allowing Adrian to wallow all over town, making the point that nothing much is doing in the man’s life, that he’s merely an observer. It took a while to get to the disappearance, almost to the midpoint. I felt the language, thick with long, meandering sentences, made this a book for which concentration is crucial: lose a phrase and you’ll lose your place. That’s me, however: sometimes I read far too fast. But it’s shorter than most, so if you do feel a bit mired you don’t have long to go.
I enjoyed the ending, the Greene-like resolution that kind of isn’t a resolution, but more food for thought. We’re not meant to pity or empathize with the characters, just watch and see the sordid, questionable action. The whole thing felt foggy, murky, appropriate for the kind of story that he wanted to tell.
I’ve come to enjoy Osborne’s work and look forward to the next. This one’s worth it.
September 26, 2024
Opera riuscitissima questa di Osborne, scrittura che si annovera in quella letteratura a metà strada tra il reportage, il viaggio e la prosa, genere in cui furono maestri indiscussi Ernest Hemingway e Bruce Chatwin. Osborne è veramente un maestro di scrittura, con poche frasi riesce a rendere una situazione, un ambiente e un momento storico sempre con una sfumatura poetica , malinconica aggiunta ad una ironia tutta british. Il racconto si svolge in Java road, una delle strade più importanti di Hong Kong, i giorni sono tesi, sono quelli attualissimi delle tensioni tra Cina ed appunto Hong Kong all’indomani della ritrovata indipendenza di quest’ultima dall’inghilterra. Il ricchissimo jimmy tang ed il giornalista adrian gyle sono amici dai tempi dell’Università ma gli sconvolgimenti politici ed una ragazza scomparsa mette in crisi il rapporto tra i due. Adrian ha un’etica del giornalismo ed una morale personale che la ricchezza strabordante e corrotta di jimmy non può mettere in discussione minimamente ed è pronto a rischiare la propria vita, l’amicizia e l’espulsione dalla ricchissima borghesia di Hong Kong pur di non dover rinunciare al proprio istinto di scrittore e giornalista di razza. Adrian alter ego di Osborne ci conduce in un viaggio senza ritorno nella Hong Kong più ricca mettendone in luce tutti i difetti senza pietà e senza ripensamenti e per questo pagherà il suo prezzo.
February 12, 2023
AT THE END: Beautifully written but pointless drivel. Should’ve trusted my gut and canned this thing 100 pages ago. Minuscule plot with zero resolution…just hugely disappointing.
IN THE MIDDLE: AM EXACTLY HALFWAY THROUGH, and normally would have bailed by now, as I'm still waiting for anything resembling an actual plot to appear - so far, it's just been rich people eating and drinking too much and complaining about rich people problems. But the setting - Hong Kong during the 2019 protests - has so far held my attention.
Osborne is a fine writer (if a little too "literature" for my plebeian tastes), but just from watching the trailer alone, it's easy to see that he also wrote The Forgiven which was made into a Ralph Fiennes/Jessica Chastain movie last year and appears to be about rich people in Morocco this time complaining about rich people problems.
Anyway.…am sticking with it for now, but hopefully there's some kind of story here about to happen soon�
IN THE MIDDLE: AM EXACTLY HALFWAY THROUGH, and normally would have bailed by now, as I'm still waiting for anything resembling an actual plot to appear - so far, it's just been rich people eating and drinking too much and complaining about rich people problems. But the setting - Hong Kong during the 2019 protests - has so far held my attention.
Osborne is a fine writer (if a little too "literature" for my plebeian tastes), but just from watching the trailer alone, it's easy to see that he also wrote The Forgiven which was made into a Ralph Fiennes/Jessica Chastain movie last year and appears to be about rich people in Morocco this time complaining about rich people problems.
Anyway.…am sticking with it for now, but hopefully there's some kind of story here about to happen soon�
November 5, 2023
a really nice book. hard to define but maybe a cultural thriler will suite it well. a book about friendship which come to pieces when a young girl found dead. the back ground is the revolts which happened in Hong Kong around 2014. amazing and precise knowledge, geopolitical debates and above all the spirit of Li Bai the great Chinese poet. great read but take into account that not much happening in the first 50% beside chinese food and a lot of drinking.
February 5, 2023
Lawrence Osborne has been called our greatest living “expat novelist.� From Morocco and Turkey to Hong Kong and Thailand, he has spent almost the entirety of his adult life overseas. And so, it should come as no surprise that his work would be about the great cities where he has himself lived as an expat.
But what is expat fiction?
Many have complained about the term “expat.� If you are white, you are an expat, but if you are brown, you are an immigrant-- or maybe even a refugee. But what if the real difference is in the language you speak? An expat, after all, is that privileged kind of immigrant who is never required to learn the language. They don’t learn the language, don’t understand the culture, don’t become part of the community. I once listened as forty-year residents of Hong Kong were on public radio bidding farewell to their beloved island. I was astonished when they mentioned that even after four decades, they had never managed to learn how to say goodbye in Cantonese. I had become a Japanese translator and member of the PTA in half that time as an immigrant in Japan, so I was mildly surprised that the couple had not managed to speak even a little Cantonese.
And yet, there is a possible advantage to having this outsider status. After all, some of our greatest expat fiction –from Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, and Lawrence Durrell to Lawrence Osborne and David Mitchell-- has been written by people who simply refused to integrate. This has allowed them a certain critical distance, as well as the ability to retain the wonder of the traveler’s heart about culture and place. The great interpreter of Japan, for example, Pico Iyer, famously refuses to learn to read or write in Japanese and after decades still resides on a tourist visa in the country. He has explained that it is this outsider status that makes him sharp as a traveler, while keeping him grounded in the language and aesthetic values of his readers.
In addition to being called our greatest living expat novelist, Osborne has also been described as the “new Graham Greene.� Maybe that is why he was not shy about naming the main character in his latest novel On Java Road Adrian Gyle.
The quiet Brit?
Gyle, who is a twenty-year expat in Hong Kong, is a bit of a washed-out reporter—even though the Hong Kong of the story is in the midst of an existential crisis that would be a journalist’s dream. The story takes place around the 2019 riots following the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. Given the region’s experience with extraterritoriality under the Colonial British, it is not surprising that this issue touched such a nerve in Hong Kong. People have taken to the streets night after night as tanks are being rolled out and helicopters roar over the island. The civil discord on the island is also reminiscent of Graham Greene’s Saigon.
As Chris Bohjalian pointed out in his review in the New York Times, more than to Greene, the novel reads like a beautiful homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby. In this way, if Adrien Gyle is part Alden Pyle and part Nick Carraway, then his friend Jimmy Tang is none other than the Great Jay Gatsby himself.
Gyle met Tang, who hails from one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest and most famous families, when the two were studying at Cambridge. Despite their massive class difference (Gyle is a working-class scholarship student who trained to become a mechanic and Tang is the heir of a shipping fortune), the two become fast friends. Tang is amused by his British friend’s choice to study Chinese at college and the two spend happy hours buying beautiful clothes on trips to London and playing around translating the poetry of Li Bai.
An elegant touch to the novel is the repeated reframe of Ezra Pound’s legendary translations of Li Bai’s poetry. And by translation, I use the term loosely since Pound could not speak a word of Chinese. In one of the earlier scenes in On Java Road, the two friends Gyle and Tang spend time on their own versions of Li Bai’s poetry. They found this amusing, if not preposterous that Pound had merely used the notes of the American scholar Ernest Fenollosa. And yet, Jimmy used to say, his interpretations were almost as haunting as the original.
This opinion is not unique to Osborne’s character either. Maybe not unlike so much of the fertile ground of the east-west dichotomy found expat fiction, many consider Pound’s “translations� of Li Bai to be a masterpiece of modern poetry. The two friends kept in touch after college, and then years later, as Gyle’s career as a journalist is languishing, he decides to follow Tang to Hong Kong.
'Failed in London, Try Hong Kong'?
Being a reporter in the midst of the handover and subsequent troubles in Hong Kong seems professionally promising—and yet Gyle’s career continues to languish. Things only change when one of Tang’s mistresses, who is a young student half his age, disappears.
Was she killed by the pro-Beijing gang members or was she murdered by Tang? The two were seen in public together generating great embarrassment to the Tang family, as well as to the family of Tang’s wife, Melissa—who are also rich and powerful bastions of Hong Kong society. Gyle begins to wonder if his friend had not found it easier to get rid of her than to face the rage of his family.
The death does not take place till halfway through the book, when the story becomes impossible to put down. The first half of the book, while slower, reads like a masterclass in beautiful writing about setting. A nomad par excellence, Osborne’s hard-boiled suspense novels and thrillers have a strong focus on the spirit of place. From Morocco and Greece, to Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong, in his novels, the spirit of cities takes center stage. Like music or the weather, these places are things to which the characters unconsciously attune themselves. In his fiction, place exerts a strong hold on people—and none are as powerful as Osborne’s Hong Kong.
Osborne is not the first Westerner to find himself under the spell of Hong Kong. From Kipling to Hemingway and Auden to Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad, and Ian Fleming � Hong Kong has been a beloved city of novelists for a century and counting. What is so interesting about Osborne’s Hong Kong is that in 2019, the city is divided. Night after night it is like a warzone. It is a place in which everyone must take a stand. You are either pro-Hong Kong independence or pro-Beijing. Pro-Democracy or anti-American. As a journalist Gyle tries to stay out of it—just aiming to report things as he sees them-- the behavior of his wealthy friend Jimmy Tang increasingly forces his hand.
No effort is spared in presenting the vibrant wonder that is Hong Kong. There are lavish trips on private yachts out to outlying islands with lobster lunches and Cantopop on the sound system; and tai-tais in head-to-toe Chanel. Characters visit run-down mansions valued in the tens of millions amidst the jungle of trees up on the Peak or have glamorous apartments up the escalator in Hong Kong’s legendary mid-levels, where the Sassoons and Kadoories once had their mansions. But the story also finds us in down-to-earth Northpoint, where Gyles has his apartment in the Garland, a 1960s building with its tangle of laundry lines and aircon boxes not a stone’s throw from the historic Sunbeam Theater, where even now Cantonese opera is performed.
Exploring the highs and lows of a great, exotic, and troubled city, we find ourselves smelling tear gas and tasting the waters of Victoria Bay. Over and over, we take Java Road to the end of the line, finding intrigue, scrumptious dim sum, and a damn good story too.
But what is expat fiction?
Many have complained about the term “expat.� If you are white, you are an expat, but if you are brown, you are an immigrant-- or maybe even a refugee. But what if the real difference is in the language you speak? An expat, after all, is that privileged kind of immigrant who is never required to learn the language. They don’t learn the language, don’t understand the culture, don’t become part of the community. I once listened as forty-year residents of Hong Kong were on public radio bidding farewell to their beloved island. I was astonished when they mentioned that even after four decades, they had never managed to learn how to say goodbye in Cantonese. I had become a Japanese translator and member of the PTA in half that time as an immigrant in Japan, so I was mildly surprised that the couple had not managed to speak even a little Cantonese.
And yet, there is a possible advantage to having this outsider status. After all, some of our greatest expat fiction –from Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, and Lawrence Durrell to Lawrence Osborne and David Mitchell-- has been written by people who simply refused to integrate. This has allowed them a certain critical distance, as well as the ability to retain the wonder of the traveler’s heart about culture and place. The great interpreter of Japan, for example, Pico Iyer, famously refuses to learn to read or write in Japanese and after decades still resides on a tourist visa in the country. He has explained that it is this outsider status that makes him sharp as a traveler, while keeping him grounded in the language and aesthetic values of his readers.
In addition to being called our greatest living expat novelist, Osborne has also been described as the “new Graham Greene.� Maybe that is why he was not shy about naming the main character in his latest novel On Java Road Adrian Gyle.
The quiet Brit?
Gyle, who is a twenty-year expat in Hong Kong, is a bit of a washed-out reporter—even though the Hong Kong of the story is in the midst of an existential crisis that would be a journalist’s dream. The story takes place around the 2019 riots following the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. Given the region’s experience with extraterritoriality under the Colonial British, it is not surprising that this issue touched such a nerve in Hong Kong. People have taken to the streets night after night as tanks are being rolled out and helicopters roar over the island. The civil discord on the island is also reminiscent of Graham Greene’s Saigon.
As Chris Bohjalian pointed out in his review in the New York Times, more than to Greene, the novel reads like a beautiful homage to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby. In this way, if Adrien Gyle is part Alden Pyle and part Nick Carraway, then his friend Jimmy Tang is none other than the Great Jay Gatsby himself.
Gyle met Tang, who hails from one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest and most famous families, when the two were studying at Cambridge. Despite their massive class difference (Gyle is a working-class scholarship student who trained to become a mechanic and Tang is the heir of a shipping fortune), the two become fast friends. Tang is amused by his British friend’s choice to study Chinese at college and the two spend happy hours buying beautiful clothes on trips to London and playing around translating the poetry of Li Bai.
An elegant touch to the novel is the repeated reframe of Ezra Pound’s legendary translations of Li Bai’s poetry. And by translation, I use the term loosely since Pound could not speak a word of Chinese. In one of the earlier scenes in On Java Road, the two friends Gyle and Tang spend time on their own versions of Li Bai’s poetry. They found this amusing, if not preposterous that Pound had merely used the notes of the American scholar Ernest Fenollosa. And yet, Jimmy used to say, his interpretations were almost as haunting as the original.
This opinion is not unique to Osborne’s character either. Maybe not unlike so much of the fertile ground of the east-west dichotomy found expat fiction, many consider Pound’s “translations� of Li Bai to be a masterpiece of modern poetry. The two friends kept in touch after college, and then years later, as Gyle’s career as a journalist is languishing, he decides to follow Tang to Hong Kong.
'Failed in London, Try Hong Kong'?
Being a reporter in the midst of the handover and subsequent troubles in Hong Kong seems professionally promising—and yet Gyle’s career continues to languish. Things only change when one of Tang’s mistresses, who is a young student half his age, disappears.
Was she killed by the pro-Beijing gang members or was she murdered by Tang? The two were seen in public together generating great embarrassment to the Tang family, as well as to the family of Tang’s wife, Melissa—who are also rich and powerful bastions of Hong Kong society. Gyle begins to wonder if his friend had not found it easier to get rid of her than to face the rage of his family.
The death does not take place till halfway through the book, when the story becomes impossible to put down. The first half of the book, while slower, reads like a masterclass in beautiful writing about setting. A nomad par excellence, Osborne’s hard-boiled suspense novels and thrillers have a strong focus on the spirit of place. From Morocco and Greece, to Cambodia, Thailand, and Hong Kong, in his novels, the spirit of cities takes center stage. Like music or the weather, these places are things to which the characters unconsciously attune themselves. In his fiction, place exerts a strong hold on people—and none are as powerful as Osborne’s Hong Kong.
Osborne is not the first Westerner to find himself under the spell of Hong Kong. From Kipling to Hemingway and Auden to Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Joseph Conrad, and Ian Fleming � Hong Kong has been a beloved city of novelists for a century and counting. What is so interesting about Osborne’s Hong Kong is that in 2019, the city is divided. Night after night it is like a warzone. It is a place in which everyone must take a stand. You are either pro-Hong Kong independence or pro-Beijing. Pro-Democracy or anti-American. As a journalist Gyle tries to stay out of it—just aiming to report things as he sees them-- the behavior of his wealthy friend Jimmy Tang increasingly forces his hand.
No effort is spared in presenting the vibrant wonder that is Hong Kong. There are lavish trips on private yachts out to outlying islands with lobster lunches and Cantopop on the sound system; and tai-tais in head-to-toe Chanel. Characters visit run-down mansions valued in the tens of millions amidst the jungle of trees up on the Peak or have glamorous apartments up the escalator in Hong Kong’s legendary mid-levels, where the Sassoons and Kadoories once had their mansions. But the story also finds us in down-to-earth Northpoint, where Gyles has his apartment in the Garland, a 1960s building with its tangle of laundry lines and aircon boxes not a stone’s throw from the historic Sunbeam Theater, where even now Cantonese opera is performed.
Exploring the highs and lows of a great, exotic, and troubled city, we find ourselves smelling tear gas and tasting the waters of Victoria Bay. Over and over, we take Java Road to the end of the line, finding intrigue, scrumptious dim sum, and a damn good story too.
January 4, 2025
Not the sort of book I usually read, however, I say down one day and read half of the book, then I just stopped; for some reason, I felt no desire to pick it back up and finish it, but I didn't want to end it either. I finally picked it up again and finished it off.
It's a contemporary novel, set in Hong Kong. A young student demonstrator has gone missing, and a British journalist is trying to find out what has happened. It's very atmospheric, a bit noirish, with some vibes. It also reminded me a little of , probably just the Hong Kong connection, but the author has clearly read that book.
It's a contemporary novel, set in Hong Kong. A young student demonstrator has gone missing, and a British journalist is trying to find out what has happened. It's very atmospheric, a bit noirish, with some vibes. It also reminded me a little of , probably just the Hong Kong connection, but the author has clearly read that book.
January 14, 2023
This one started out pretty good, in a nice literary fiction kind of way, but by 10% I got bored. A lot of talking and descriptions, but not much action. Also, 10% already and not into described plot points yet. It seems it may be getting close, but I'm too uninterested to keep going. Willing to concede it may just not be for me.
December 29, 2022
An unsettling, atmospheric novel set in Hong Kong just as pro-democracy demonstrations are filling the streets and filling the air with danger. Veteran British journalist Adrian Gyles has been living in Hong Kong for decades, filing reports but mostly enjoying the social circles he finds himself in as a pal (a former school friend) of Jimmy Tang, the scion of a wealthy and powerful family. Adrian comes to learn that Jimmy has been having an affair with Rebecca, a passionate leader of the student demonstrations. Rebecca disappears (is disappeared?) and Jimmy withdraws, and Adrian’s long-dormant investigative instincts are aroused as he tries to discover what has happened to Rebecca. Old loyalties crumble, as the formerly comfortable social world begins to show stress fractures.
August 22, 2022
One of the ads for this book says: "A missing student. A playboy heir. An expat journalist. What will his search for the truth uncover?" Nothing. His search uncovers nothing. The characters are not likable largely because they are not honest. Their lack of honesty makes it impossible to determine the truth. Very disappointing indeed.
August 31, 2022
Not my favorite Osborne. Short on plot, long on descriptions of high-end men's clothing.
September 17, 2022
4.5 stars! This was my first novel by this author and I was hugely impressed ... by how much setting and the main character's moral compass become apart of the story. This one is set in Hong Kong, around 2019 during the time of the unrest, protestors, & the Chinese crack-downs, which adds a large intrigue factor. Adrian Gyle, a British reporter, who's been there 20 years and finds his career on the way down, crosses paths with his old Cambridge friend Jimmy Tang, the son of one of HK's wealthiest families. They are socioeconomically very different -- Adrian being a scholarship boy and Jimmy rich, but they both studied poetry. The story revolves around their friendship - these many years later -- during the uprising as married Jimmy gets secretly involved with a young 23-old-protestor Rebecca To, whose wealthy family the Tangs have long known. Adrian also seems drawn to Rebecca, but then a photographer exposes Jimmy's affair and Rebecca goes missing. Adrian begins to wonder & investigate if Jimmy had anything to do with it. It's a slow-burn, intricate story that poses questions about their friendship, trust, and life in Hong Kong. I was caught up in it and want to read more of Osborne's foreign-based novels.
February 18, 2023
Over-hyped. Dull to the threshold of tediousness. Although well-written, it’s empty and inconsequential. Barely to Three Stars only due to the quality of the prose.
August 1, 2022
Set in Hong Kong during the riots that developed around the Chinese takeover. Two men, a British journalist and a wealthy Hong Kong citizen, develop a friendship during their university days. They remain good friends until one becomes involved in a scandal that tears them apart.
The novel includes vocabulary in Mandarin and Cantonese, along with mention of Asian foods as many get-togethers in restaurants are mentioned. The rioting in Hong Kong was what drew me to the story, but not enough was written about the events. Halfway through the story got interesting for me though, and I read to the end hoping to learn what happened between Rebecca and Jimmy.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley.
The novel includes vocabulary in Mandarin and Cantonese, along with mention of Asian foods as many get-togethers in restaurants are mentioned. The rioting in Hong Kong was what drew me to the story, but not enough was written about the events. Halfway through the story got interesting for me though, and I read to the end hoping to learn what happened between Rebecca and Jimmy.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley.
June 29, 2023
Disappointing. Osbourne can really write, and in "On Java Road" you are often treated to some wonderful descriptive passages of Hong Kong, as well as some thoughtful meditations on contemporary reporting and journalism and sometimes complicity in a time of rising authoritarianism. The stage in the particular case is 2019 Hong Kong, during the democracy protests. Communist China's grip on the city is tightening, and the ultra rich are trying to decide whether to flee or live with coming regime. The story, such as it is, is recounted by an alcoholic journalist named Adrian Gyle. He is good friends with super-rich millionaire (or billionaire) named Jimmy Tang. They went to school together in England. Jimmy is having an affair with a young woman (also rich) named Rebecca. She has been taking part in the protests. A little over a hundred pages into the book she disappears. Murder? Suicide? I didn't much care because by that point I didn't feel much of anything for the characters or the plot. The descriptive passages and the occasional world-weary musings had taken priority over the story itself. Osbourne is an excellent writer, but this is not one of his better efforts.
August 20, 2024
Lawrence Osborne's specializes in deeply atmospheric psychological thrillers where the relationships among the characters, as well as their relationship with colonialism and imperialism, is far more the focus than criminal activity. The hubris of 'westerners' of whatever class attempting to hide out anywhere but their own country of origin adds to the backdrop of tension. Osborne is one of my go-to authors when I desire complexity with my escapism.
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