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House of Kwa

"Traversing generations from China to present-day Australia, this dazzling novel-like memoir lays bare the very real intersection of the past and the present."

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LoveReading Says

LoveReading Says

From China, to war-torn Hong Kong, to Australia, Mimi Kwa’s riveting multi-generational memoir reveals how the past has a habit of gripping the present. Boasting the panache and painterly writing of a fine-tuned novel, House of Kwa shares powerful accounts of trauma, racism and dislocation interwoven with stories of strength, resilience and remarkable reinvention.

It all starts with a shocking letter that sees the writer served with a Kwa versus Kwa lawsuit by her father. A “direct descendent of the Emperor of China”, he’s described as a dragon. The courtroom is his “stomping ground” while she is “a tiger, running towards a fire, leaping into flames while I look behind me — as far back as I can, to ancient China, near the Emperor’s palace in Beijing”.

The lawsuit concerns the author’s glorious Aunt Theresa’s estate, and sees her dig deep into the history of the House of Kwa, from the time her dad was one of 32 children born to a wealthy silk merchant. Taking in the brutal Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, and Theresa sending her father to study in Australia, it also shares her mother’s mental illness, and Kwa’s own journey to finding forgiveness and peace with the past.

With Aunt Theresa’s spirit shining through the story, House of Kwa really is an enthralling feat.

Joanne Owen

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Primary Genre Biographies & Autobiographies
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