The Lives and Loves of Hana Lee

by K.P. Webster

Hana Lee has read more books than any other living person. She speaks nine languages, is fabulously wealthy and – on the downside – has killed somewhere in the region of 250 people. To be fair, however, most of them had it coming.

Concert pianist, nun, English teacher, sex worker, spy – Hana Lee has had such an uncommonly long and varied life that by the summer of 2012, she just wants to get it down on paper and get it over with. In the hope of finding an official biographer, she contacts ex-blogger and failed novelist Lucia Fornaciari and has her believe that she is the reincarnation of a 19th century concert pianist who accidentally killed her husband on the night of their wedding in 1830. In truth, however, Hana Lee's uniquely challenging gift is a great deal more bizarre than mere reincarnation.

Lucia, imagining Hana must be mentally ill, refuses to help her. Instead, feeling confused in a room full of clocks and a chair like an aphrodisiac, she tries to kiss her. It is only when Hana is attacked in south London and her attacker is killed in the process that Lucia agrees to help write the story of Hana's life.

Part contemporary love story, part historical biography, The Lives and Loves of Hana Lee is an extraordinary story of female love, rage and empowerment against the backdrop of two hundred years of male prejudice. By turns explicit, shocking, darkly funny and deeply moving, its cast of characters includes Parisian courtesans, ailing Samurai, sadistic gynaecologists and Sicilian sulphur miners. It also features walk-on parts for Toulouse Lautrec, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway and Sarah Palin.

400 pages, ebook

First published February 20, 2013

About the author

Also known as Karl Webster

Reviews

[Mariemarion · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good book. Funny and dark, with sex and death and female characters you (well, I, at least) just want to meet and thank and know and love and hug (and more). "Hanna Lee" will stay with me for a long time.

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this quite well in the end, despite having to skip through the last 20% at great speed in order to get it finished in time for malbec club (yes I was finishing it sitting at the table in Mr Lawrence's...)

The first two or three chapters set the story up nicely, and I think unfortunately the story itself didn't quite live up to its early promise. I found Gabby an irritating character, although clearly necessary to the story.

I also felt there were a few too many anti-men sentiments peppered throughout the text that didn't really add to the story, in fact they became quite jarring and irritating as the story went on.

It was easy to read, and quite a page turner - I liked the way the story flipped between past and present from chapter to chapter. I think my favourite parts of the book were the bits from the 1800s in Paris, I felt perhaps the author ran out of steam a bit by the time Hana got to Japan/America.

The sex is better written than 50 Shades of Grey...

[Alex Brightsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ducked reviewing this book for a long time because the reasons that I didn’t love it absolutely have a lot more to do with me as a reader than with the book. It’s inventive, compelling and beautifully written – so much so that I read it and enjoyed it despite my prudish tendency to scud through sex scenes as if I’m peering through my fingers at the gory parts of a horror movie. And there is a lot of sex, plot-relevant, and hardly unexpected to anyone who has read the blurb, but sadly not my cup of tea. Sadly, because this is a well-told tale, and exuberantly imaginative, though for me it felt a little uneven with some tantalisingly unexplored strands and ideas.

[James Lark]

A delicious read. Apart from anything else it is absolutely beautifully crafted - great prose and a structure that takes you between different times and places and voices just enough to keep you on your toes. Good characters, too, written with plenty of compassion. All that in its favour and I haven't even mentioned the audacious mixture of genres or the frankly outrageous central conceit. Not one for the faint of heart, but a gripping read and a thrilling adventure for everyone else.

[Gregory Dyke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first bought and downloaded it several months ago, out of obligation to the author, whose blog I always enjoy. The cover blurb and the first chapter or so led me to think it wouldn't be my thing. Too murder mystery or something. I finally got round to reading it on a plane flight and wow. Could not put it down. A story about compassion and love, just what I like. Recommend to all.

[Erin Mc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. Weird, interesting, held my attention, but something about it didn't feel like a "real book." Quick read for me.

[Catofstripes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little book, engaging. Definitely worth a look.