Sayonara Bar

Extraordinary debut novel set in a hostess bar in Osaka, Japan. By the acclaimed author of THE INCARNATIONS

A beautifully written and far-reaching exploration of Japanese culture from first-time novelist Susan Barker

Barker has given it the pace and excitement of a thriller - or of the manga comics to which Watanabe is addicted. Funny, crisply written and engaging, Sayonora Bar offers sharp insights into some of the less palatable realities of life in 21st century Japan'

With dry humour and crisp observation, Barker conveys the inner chaos masked by the external regimens of a society where intimacy is contrived, and loyalty is strained. Japan has not, for a long time, been made to seem so accessible, or so remote

New author Susan Barker has set her edgy, sly debut in a hostess lounge

A stunningly eclectic debut. Original, often perplexing, always intriguing, Sayonara Bar is a showpiece of breathtaking new talent

Highly original ... A major achievement by an exciting new author.

A fluid style and writes sentences reminiscent of Haruki Murakami...Barker's descriptions are spot on

Susan Barker was born in London in 1978 to a Chinese Malaysian mother and an English father. Aged twenty-five, she completed the acclaimed novel Sayonara Bar (‘Funny, crisply written and engaging’ Times), followed by The Orientalist and the Ghost (‘Sharp and original’ Guardian). While writing her third novel The Incarnations she spent several years living in Beijing, researching modern and ancient China. She is currently based in Shenzhen, China.

**Shortlisted for the Authors' Club First Novel Award and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize** 
 
'Highly original . . . A major achievement by an exciting new author' Independent 
 
'A beautifully written and far-reaching exploration of Japanese culture' Books of the Year, Independent 
 
Mary, a graduate from England, has drifted into a job in a hostess lounge in Osaka. She works for the enigmatic Mama-san and spends her evenings flirting with rich Japanese salarymen, playing drinking games and singing in the karaoke booth. Mary is in love with Yuji, Mama-san's son. But Yuji's loyalty is to the Yakuza gangster for whom he works. 
 
Watanabe, the introverted cook, watches Mary from the kitchen. He exists in his own manga-fuelled fantasy of the fourth dimension, and believes he can see into other people's souls. When he perceives the danger of Mary's growing obsession with Yuji, he resolves to protect her whatever the cost. 
 
Mr Sato works for the Daiwa Trading Corporation. Obsessive overwork cannot cure the emptiness of his solitary life as a salaryman. Lured against his will to the Sayonara Bar by his boss, he finds himself returning there to escape his dead wife's ghost. 
 
Edgy, sly, often very funny, SAYONARA BAR spins a kaleidoscopic, genre-crossing tale of people cut adrift in a globalized world.

The Orientalist And The Ghost

An epic love story following three generations of one family through the chaotic upheaval of post-war Malaysia. By the acclaiimed author of THE INCARNATIONS

Barker is a sharp and original writer. I greatly envied both her ruthlessness and her tender, acute observations of these characters

BY THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE INCARNATIONS AND SAYONARA BAR 
 
Malaya 1951, a jungle resettlement camp: young colonial adventurer Christopher Milnar falls passionately in love with a Chinese nurse Evangeline - a fierce flame that ends in tragedy when their camp is attacked by Communist guerrillas and Christopher is violently beaten up. 
 
London: half a century later the ghosts of that time return to haunt Christopher, triggering vivid memories of colonial misconduct and lost love. Forced to confront his past, Christopher agonises over the fate of his beloved Evangeline and the disappearance of their daughter. 
 
Moving from present day London to the heart of the Malayan jungle in colonial times, THE ORIENTALIST AND THE GHOST is a stunning portrayal of human frailty and lost love.

Susan Barker

Reads as China's Midnight's Children. Utterly remarkable

An extraordinary novel. Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, THE INCARNATIONS takes the reader on an intimate and mesmerizing journey through Chinese history. Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written one of the most remarkable novels of recent years.

A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal and a vivid tapestry of the individual's struggle against the tyranny of history, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read all year

ADAM JOHNSON, WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION 2013

A brilliant, mind-expanding and wildly original novel

What a ferociously talented writer Susan Barker is. The Incarnations is a hallucinatory ride. Highly recommend

Remarkable - ambitious in scope, painstakingly researched and most importantly, a gripping read.

Letters from someone who claims to have known him for 1,000 years unsettle a cabbie.

Ambitious in scope, scholarly in depth, and absolutely rivetting ...Sure to make an impact and she deserves all the praise - and most likely prize(s) - that will follow.

Light and often witty ...There is tragedy, though perhaps not where the reader expects it, but there is also hope.

Invigorating. To recreate convincingly a single historical period is an achievement. To recreate six is to approach virtuosity ... Deft, smart, various and warm: a very good book indeed.

Multi-layered and masterful. Suspend your disbelief, flow along with this wonderful book.

Stunning. Moving between Wang's many pasts, all of them thrilling, gruesome, and tragic, and Wang's increasingly desperate present, Barker's historical tour de force is simultaneously sweeping and precise. Barker's psychologically nuanced characters and sharp wit turn the bleakness and the gore into something seriously moving. Effortlessly blends the past with the present, dark humour with profound sadness. A deeply human masterpiece.

Not since Jung Chang's WILD SWANS has there been such a visceral re-telling of the old days.

Barker resembles David Mitchell in the ability to weave together past and present in a convincing, and ultimately intriguing, manner

This is a beautifully structured novel, and the interspersed letters describing previous lives are engrossing and sharp. These past lives are too real to feel like mere metaphor. Cruelty, betrayal and slavery reoccur over the centuries, and are echoed in Wang’s modern life. 
 
The prose is light and often witty, and the characterization is one of the book’s most impressive aspects… This is an extremely satisfying and intelligent book

A wonderful piece of historical/fantasy/suspense fiction unlike anything else I've read... Constantly unpredictable and surprising

Barker is a phenomenal storyteller. She time-travels seamlessly from the Tang Dynasty in AD 632 to contemporary Beijing and each snippet of each incarnation, rich in convincing detail, is utterly mesmerising

Barker has created a set of characters who jump off the page and Wang's heartrending story is sensitively told

Seamlessly weaving Chinese folklore, history, and literary classics, The Incarnations is a taut and gripping novel that sheds light on the cyclical nature of history and it hints that the past is never truly settled.

Remarkable... a time-bending fantasy with an unknown (and possibly unreliable) narrator sweeping us down the rabbit hole of history

The Incarnations is so many stories wrapped into one astounding tale, and the end result is nothing short of a masterpiece. Susan Barker takes us on a breathtaking tour of China's chequered history, and her literary prowess is a thing of beauty.

The best English-language novel about China I have ever read.

Engaging, poetic and lyrical... Individually, the historical chapters are compelling, interesting short stories; together you have a novel I want to read with a book club and discuss, discuss, discuss

Balances past and present, the grand sweep of history and the intensely personal, all wrapped up in brisk and densely evocative prose. You can never quite be sure where Wang's story is going to turn next - not even after a thousand years.

So alive, so visceral. Every incarnation is raw and vicious. Just amazing. For fans of David Mitchell and Murakami

Barker is a brilliant prose stylist and this book should be read out loud. Even some of the most minor details are charged with social and historical insight... a genuine page turner that brings it all together quite unlike any other book about China published in the past decade.

Engrossing. Barker's writing is fluid, and the plotlines and characterizations found in her historical tales, while dark and sinister, are nonetheless intriguing. Misunderstandings abound throughout the novel to unravel the past that collides intensely with the present, ultimately leading to a disquieting finale.

Dazzling ... her natural storytelling gifts shine from every paragraph

Brutal yet seductive, this journey through the darkest parts of the human spirit will leave readers with chills running down their spines.

Barker skilfully combines history, the supernatural and the everyday in a novel that suggests the apst is never really past, while providing a cracking good read.

[A] kaleidoscopically imaginative novel…Barker stitches together an unnervingly perceptive portrait of China and of the enduring influence that its past has on the present.

Betrayal and intrigue in China lived again and again by a Beijing taxi driver across a thousand years

Mesmerizing, fantastical tale of a Beijing taxi driver whose past incarnations over a thousand years haunt him through searing letters sent by a mysterious soulmate 
 
A New York Times Editors' Choice and Notable Book of the Year. 
Shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction 
 
'Reads as China's Midnight's Children. Utterly remarkable' Independent 
'A kaleidoscopically imaginative novel' The New Yorker 
'Multi-layered and masterful' Guardian 
 
I dream of us across the centuries ... 
 
Beijing, 2008, the Olympics are coming, but as taxi driver Wang circles the city's congested streets, he feels barely alive. His daily grind is suddenly interrupted when he finds a letter in the sunshade of his cab. He is being warned: Someone is watching him. Someone who claims to be his soulmate and to have known him for over a thousand years. 
 
Other letters follow, taking Wang back in time: to a spirit-bride in the Tang Dynasty; to young slaves during the Mongol invasion; to concubines plotting to kill the emperor; to a kidnapping in the Opium War; and to Red Guards during the Cultural revolution. 
 
And with each letter, Wang feels the watcher in the shadows growing closer ... 
__________________________________ 
 
PRAISE FOR SUSAN BARKER: 
 
'[A] kaleidoscopically imaginative novel...Barker stitches together an unnervingly perceptive portrait of China and of the enduring influence that its past has on the present' THE NEW YORKER 
 
'A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read all year' ADAM JOHNSON, Winner of the PULITZER Prize for Fiction 
 
'Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written one of the most remarkable novels of recent years' JOHN BOYNE 
 
'A brilliant, mind-expanding, and wildly original novel' CHRIS CLEAVE 
 
'A hallucinatory ride. Highly recommend' ANNA HOPE

Susan Barker

Praise for The Incarnations

Reads as China's Midnight's Children. Utterly remarkable

An extraordinary novel. Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, THE INCARNATIONS takes the reader on an intimate and mesmerizing journey through Chinese history. Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written ...

A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal and a vivid tapestry of the individual's struggle against the tyranny of history, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read ...

Reads as China's Midnight's Children. Utterly remarkable

An extraordinary novel. Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, THE INCARNATIONS takes the reader on an intimate and mesmerizing journey through Chinese history. Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written ...

A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal and a vivid tapestry of the individual's struggle against the tyranny of history, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read ...

Reads as China's Midnight's Children. Utterly remarkable

An extraordinary novel. Erudite, intriguing and compulsively readable, THE INCARNATIONS takes the reader on an intimate and mesmerizing journey through Chinese history. Susan Barker, a born story-teller, has written ...

A thrilling journey through a thousand years of obsession and betrayal and a vivid tapestry of the individual's struggle against the tyranny of history, this is the most extraordinary work of imagination you'll read ...

Books by Susan Barker

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