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When Sleeping Women Wake

Emma Pei Yin
€25.99
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A01=Emma Pei Yin
asian author
asian literature
Author_Emma Pei Yin
banyan moon
beats of a little land juhea kim
Category=FJMS
Category=FV
Category=FXN
chinese history
debut writer
east asian history
east river column
epic historical debut
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_historical-fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
family life fiction
female resistance
fifty words for rain asha lemmie
hanako footman
historical fiction
historical love story
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Chinese author
hwa prize
japanese history
jing jing lee
kristin hannah
lady tan's circle of women
lisa see
min jin lee
mina lee
mongrel
multi generational family history
pachinko
reese's book club
second world war historical fiction
thai thao
the island of see women
the mountains sing
the nightingale
untold history
women in WWII stories
women's history
world war two
yangsze choo

Product details

  • ISBN 9781529440638
  • Weight: 680g
  • Dimensions: 162 x 236mm
  • Publication Date: 17 Jun 2025
  • Publisher: Quercus Publishing
  • Publication City/Country: GB
  • Product Form: Hardback
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Description

WINNER OF 2026 AUSTRALIAN INDIE BOOK AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION

'A heart-breaking, moving, and soaring novel' NGUYỄN PHAN QUẾ MAI
'Gorgeous and expansive' STYLIST

Hong Kong, 1941. Following the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, the wealthy Tang family flee to Hong Kong.

As the First Wife of the family, Mingzhu leads a sheltered - if lonely - existence overseeing her daughter Qiang and managing the household alongside her devoted maid, Biyu.

But when the Japanese army invade, the three women are scattered. Mingzhu is coerced into working for a Japanese captain. Qiang and Biyu escape the island, only to be forced into factory work then separated after an encounter with the East River Column Resistance fighters.

The longer the brutal occupation lasts, the more determined the women are to resist. And as war rages around the world, each is holding onto the hope that the other is alive.

Beautifully told and compulsively written, When Sleeping Women Wake is an utterly transporting story of female resistance and untold bravery, at once epic and intimate, heartbreaking and hopeful.


*LONGLISTED FOR THE ARA HISTORICAL NOVEL PRIZE READERS CHOICE AWARD*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE AUSTRALIAN INDIE BOOK AWARDS*

Everyone has fallen for When Sleeping Women Wake

'A lushly romantic and impassioned story of women's agency and resilience' JUHEA KIM

'Compelling, beautiful, and deeply moving' WEINA DAI RANDEL

'A breathtaking, important story of family, love and endurance' WIZ WHARTON
About Emma Pei Yin
Emma Pei Yin is an Australian-Chinese writer, editor and literary advocate. Her debut novel, When Sleeping Women Wake, has been published internationally and translated into multiple languages. The novel was longlisted for the ARA Historical Novel Prize (2025) and won the Australian Indie Book Awards in the Debut Fiction category (2026). Emma is the founder of yinfluence, an agency supporting PoC, queer and neurodivergent writers by connecting them with editors and mentors who understand the stakes of telling stories from the margins. She is an Author Advocate for Room to Read and an Ambassador for Chapters for Change. Emma also co-hosts Served With Rice Poddy, a trans-Tasman literary and cultural podcast and visual series recorded across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand that centres conversations about books, publishing, identity and community through food-infused discussion. She is currently working on her second novel with her extremely barky dachshund, Lady, by her side.

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