City Like Water ~ Dorothy Tse and Natascha Bruce in conversation

All welcome to join us at The Leeds Library as we celebrate the launch of City Like Water, by Dorothy Tse, and translated by Natascha Bruce (Fitzcarraldo Editions, 2026). Dorothy Tse is one of Hong Kong's most exciting authors and the novel has already received rave reviews. 

Dorothy Tse is a writer from Hong Kong. She is the author of Owlish, City Like Water and the short story collection Snow and Shadow, translated by Nicky Harman, which was longlisted for the Best Translated Book Award. A cofounder of the literary journal Fleurs des Lettres, she has received the Hong Kong Book Prize, the Hong Kong Biennial Award for Chinese Literature, and Taiwan’s Unitas New Fiction Writers’ Award.

Natascha Bruce translates fiction from Chinese, and we are particularly proud that she launched her career as joint-winner of our Centre's inaugural Bai Meigui translation competition, back in 2015. Her work includes novels and story collections by Yeng Pway Ngon, Patigül, Ho Sok Fong and Can Xue, as well as the novels Owlish and City Like Water by Dorothy Tse. Her translation of Owlish was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize and named one of the New Yorker’s best books of 2023. She lives in Amsterdam.

Publisher's synopsis:

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.

Dorothy and Natascha, great friends of our Centre, will be in conversation about the work, followed by Q&A.

The event will be in English and all are welcome but please sign up at the link above -- it is free to attend, but donations to the upkeep of this beautiful library will be much appreciated. Bar available.

Please note the venue is on Commercial Street, near to Trinity Shopping Centre, not to be confused with Leeds City Library, which is on the Headrow!).Those of you who have followed our Centre may remember a previous event with Dorothy and Natascha on their last collaborative project, in 2000 at the same venue -- we are very excited to welcome them back!

 Check out the Fitzcarraldo website to see a selection of the reviews so far.