This special, book club edition of award-winning author Alice Nelson’s The Last Sky recounts the story of Maya Wise – a young wife alone in Hong Kong.

The Sydney Morning Herald described Nelson’s language as displaying ‘real lyrical beauty’. The Weekend Australian said the book was ‘partly a haunting and uneasy love story, partly a subtle exploration of cultural and political tensions’.

British rule is coming to an end and so is Maya’s marriage. She drifts, wandering aimlessly through the crowded city streets. Captivated by an elderly Chinese man and his caged nightingale, she follows him home. But Ken Tiger is a man with a past. As Maya draws out his tale of lost love in wartime Shanghai, she pieces together other stories, other histories that will help her to imagine a new life for herself.

• Winner, Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Novelist of the Year, 2009;
• Short listed, Barbara Jefferis Award for Literature, 2009;
• Winner, T A G Hungerford Award, 2006;
• Short listed, The Australian / Vogel Award, 2004.