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Book Launch: “Michael O’Sullivan’s Lockdown Lovers (Penguin 2021)”

Prof. Michael O’Sullivan
Department of English
CUHK

Abstract:
Lockdown Lovers is a love story set in lockdown conditions across two continents. Pushed to the limits of their endurance in lockdown and then quarantine conditions, John Ryan, a Hong Kong academic, and Phoebe Ho, a Hong Kong District councillor, decide to break the rules of their quarantine and rediscover what has been denied them for too long, passionate human contact. The novel alternates between the perspectives of John, Phoebe, Kwok-ying, a Government Health official, John’s wife Sue, his son Sam, Princess Selina, a millionaire’s heiress, and a pangolin, the mammal reportedly at the root of the virus, as they all find their own way to deal with the dramatic changes in their environments. In Part III John even travels back to Ireland desperate to assist his parents in their lockdown. Haunted by the memory of touch Phoebe opened him up to in quarantine, he realises he must return to Hong Kong to rediscover love with his wife and son. The story ends in Hong Kong in 2022, 2 years after the first appearance of the virus in the city. The novel reminds us of our undying capacities for contact and closeness even at times of pandemic when they seem under threat like never before.

Bio:
Michael O’Sullivan is a Professor in the dept of English at CUHK. He has taught on literature and language for universities in Ireland, the UK, the US, Japan and Hong Kong. He has published 12 books. Recent relevant publications include The Humanities in Contemporary Chinese Contexts (Springer 2016) (with Evelyn Chan); The Humanities and the Irish University: Anomalies and Opportunities (Manchester UP 2014): Academic Barbarism, Universities, and Inequality (Palgrave 2016); Postcolonial Economies (Routledge) (with Maureen Ruprecht Fadem). He is a founding editor of the Chinese University Press journal Hong Kong Studies.

Research Seminar
2024-01-10
9 April 2021 (Fri)
5:00pm
972 5772 4087
583805

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