When Sleeping Women Wake

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