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On Java Road
  • Published: 14 November 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529114959
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99

On Java Road

Formats & editions
Paperback
14 Nov 2023
EBook
4 Aug 2022
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The tense, atmospheric novel from the critically acclaimed, cult favourite Lawrence Osborne

A veteran British journalist living in Hong Kong investigates the disappearance of a student protestor amidst the pro-democracy demonstrations in this unsettling new novel from the acclaimed author of The Forgiven

After twenty years as an ex-pat reporter in Hong Kong, Adrian Gyle has almost nothing to show for it. But now the streets are choked with students demanding democratic freedoms, and the old world is beginning to fall apart.

Adrian's old friend Jimmy Tang, the scion of a wealthy Hong Kong family, has begun a reckless affair with Rebecca, a leading pro-democracy protestor. But when Rebecca disappears and Jimmy goes to ground, Adrian unearths the familiar old urge to investigate. Pursuing Rebecca's ghost to Java Road where the city's dead congregate, Adrian re-assembles her final hours - as he struggles to distinguish between delusion and reality.

'Osborne's whodunnit is wrapped in an atmospheric portrait both of a particular place and time, and of the creation and destruction of a friendship. Highly recommended' GUARDIAN

'Osborne goes from strength to strength' LIONEL SHRIVER

'Osborne handles surface and depth with immense skill, as only great writers can' DEBORAH LEVY, FINANCIAL TIMES

'If the purpose of a novel is to take you away from the everyday and show you something different, then Osborne is succeeding, and handsomely' LEE CHILD, NEW YORK TIMES
  • Published: 14 November 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529114959
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 240
  • RRP: $22.99
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About the author

Lawrence Osborne

Lawrence Osborne is a critically acclaimed novelist, journalist, and screenwriter based in Bangkok. He is the author of eight novels, including Ballad of a Small Player, Beautiful Animals, and The Forgiven. His non-fiction ranges from memoir through travelogue to essays, including Bangkok Days, The Naked Tourist and The Wet and the Dry. His novels have been chosen as Books of the Year by the Guardian, the Observer, the Daily Telegraph, the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, The Economist, The New Yorker and the New York Times. The Forgiven was made into a film in 2022 starring Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes and Ballad of a Small Player starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton was released on Netflix in 2025.

portrait photo of Lawrence Osborne

Also by Lawrence Osborne

Burning Angel and Other Stories
The Glass Kingdom
Only to Sleep
Beautiful Animals
Hunters in the Dark
The Ballad of a Small Player
The Forgiven
See all

Praise for On Java Road

[A] superbly atmospheric reportage of a place and time... [On Java Road is] his most compulsive yet

Peter Kemp, Sunday Times

[A] timely, elegantly written novel

Spectator

Marvellously convincing evocations of fractious, tear-gas-canister-strewn Hong Kong... Osborne...presents every country his novels visit clearly, without imposing his own gloss

Literary Review

In the growing footprint of what he deems "Planet Tourism," his novels have become his radical reworking of travel writing - as sensual, provocative and riveting portraits of lives and places in flux

Washington Post

Masterly ... This story of moral failings and totalitarian excess is as disturbing as it is irresistible

Peter Carty

Osborne's whodunnit is wrapped in an atmospheric portrait both of a particular place and time, and of the creation and destruction of a friendship. Highly recommended

Guardian

A finely judged blend of mystery and menace will keep you guessing

Observer
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