First Name Second Name

by Steve MinOn

The journey will be long and difficult, one thousand miles. Try not to be too obvious. Stick to the backroads. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you get there. Stephen Bolin leaves a bizarre note by his deathbed, asking his sisters to take his body back to his birthplace in Far North Queensland. When they ignore his request, Stephen’s corpse makes the nocturnal pilgrimage alone. But what is compelling him and what will he find there? His journey, as a kind of jiangshi, takes him back through his turbulent family history: from his Chinese great-grandfather’s life on the goldfields in 1860s Queensland, to his Scottish grandparents’ migration to Australia as ten-pound Poms, and to his own coming of age and coming out in Brisbane and London. Original and satirical, First Name Second Name follows four generations of one family through a reckoning with racial, familial and sexual identity.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Historical, Australia

272 pages, Paperback

Published March 4, 2025

Reviews

[Garth Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant, spectral migrant’s tale spanning generations.

Steve’s deeply felt tale of otherness, familial bonds and the supernatural make for a peerlessly deft, moving debut.

[zed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read through this interesting novel quite quickly, it's an easy read, but I’m not sure the fantasy element worked for me as I had hoped.

The main protagonist is Stephen Bolin, a gay Chinese-Australian man who, after his death, becomes a jiāngshī, reanimated corpse compelled to journey back to his birthplace. I had no idea what a jiāngshī was before reading this, but here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangshi

As a jiāngshī, Stephen wanders from Brisbane to Innisfail, a 1,600-kilometre journey, back to the place where he was born. Interwoven with his journey is the story of his migrant ancestors of both Chinese and Scottish descent, Stephen’s story, as well as his relationship with his present-day family. The idea is that his a jiāngshī journey mirrors the ancestral legacy of identity and place, connecting the family’s past with its present. Conceptually, this is a strong and intriguing premise that actually held my interest, but the jiāngshī element felt very underdeveloped and out of place, not so much the idea of a dead body wandering all that distance, but rather details like the body falling apart or Stephen draining the life force (Qi) from a few individuals along the way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi
On a personal level, I would have enjoyed this much more if the fantasy element had been woven in more subtly.

The author mentions in the acknowledgments that he drew heavily from family history, which was compelling enough for me as I found the depiction of a Chinese family navigating overt racism, an issue that can still rear its ugly head in Queensland to this day, particularly engaging. The final, non-fantasy chapter about a family reunion, for instance, was a terrific read. The author’s writing was especially strong at this point, and I would have been satisfied if the novel had ended there.


A minor comment: when I was a kid, we called them Ice Blocks. Who knew they were called “By Jingos” in North Queensland? Not me! I asked my wife, who was born in Central Queensland, and she recalled hearing the northern girls use this term at boarding school.

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 3 out of 5]

First Name Second Name is an odd book, and I’m not sure where to place it. It’s not a straight ghost story, but it’s not straight historical fiction, either. I think I would have been more engaged by it if it had been structured differently, or leaned more definitively in either direction. MinOn clearly draws directly from his own family’s history, which gives the story a ring of authenticity but perhaps curtails the freedom that should come with fiction.

My full review of First Name Second Name is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Michelle Upton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating, thought provoking and I couldn’t help but shed a tear at the end✨

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first read the blurb for Steve MinOn’s debut novel, First Name Second Name, I immediately knew that I had to read it.

A baffling deathbed note from Stephen Bolin to his family asking them to return his body to his birthplace of Far North Queensland is the push off point for a journey through his family history. From his Chinese great-grandfather’s life on the Queensland goldfields of the 1860s, to his Scottish grandparents’ migration to Australia and on to Stephen’s own adolescence and coming out in Brisbane and London, its an unsettling journey. Even more so as it is Stephen’s corpse making the trip after his sister’s dismissed his dying wish.

What a captivating and unique story! From the very beginning when Stephen started his nocturnal wandering, I was riveted. I loved the insight into these four generations and was particularly intrigued by Pan Bo Lin (Stephen’s grandfather) and his goldfields’ experiences and how he came to marry.

The story explores family rifts, racism, sexuality and personal identity in a poignant and also darkly humorous way. I found it incredibly thought provoking and powerful.

I also appreciated the use of the legends of the Jiāngshī, or Chinese vampires. It was such a bizarre and original idea and I found myself seeking out more information on these folk tales.

First Name Second Name was a stunning and complex debut from an author who I predict will be one to watch. I cannot wait for whatever Steve writes next.

[Helena Wang · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the writing and the concept and the story. The thing I loved most was relating to the character’s culture in its entirety. It made me realise how little I see myself in Australian literature, and how desperately I want to see myself in it. Additionally, having been taught to love Queensland by friends who are now family, reading about Brisbane and FNQ and small towns I’ve visited awoke a fierce longing in me. I was really holding back a lot of emotion by the end.

[Clare Sheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Name Second Name was beautifully written, and I was particularly impressed with how the intercepting storylines were executed. They kept me engaged and eager to discover what would happen next.

Although the story spans multiple generations, the pacing felt just right. I never felt rushed, yet the details were rich and vivid. As someone from a Chinese background, I also appreciated the many similarities I found between the stories of the family in the book and my own family's experiences.

One aspect that resonated with me was the portrayal of JiangShi. As a child, I was terrified of them, thanks to all the horror movies. I can't say this book has completely cured me of my phobia, but they certainly seem less scary now.

[Vicki Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

First Name Second Name takes the reader on an odyssey through a Queensland life. Original and imaginative in both story and style, this debut book from Steve MinOn is both poignant and questioning.

Skilfully and beautifully written with a gentle touch of pathos, layered, yet cleared-eyed, First Name Second Name will shake your senses awake and grab hold of your heart. I love a perfectly crafted heartbreaker final paragraph, and this book has one.

This story of a walking corpse is, at the same time, the story of one man's life, all the twists and turns and choices made along his journey of self-discovery and identity.

This is no ordinary life. This is a life that survived the bigotry and brutality of the harshest era of conservative government in Queensland.

First Name Second Name left me thinking about how we are all shaped by ancestors without our knowing and how the gift of understanding this belongs to the next generations. I'm so glad that these stories of migration to the great south land are being told.

"You'll know you've arrived when you get there."

[Jennine Heymer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An eye-opening and profound exploration of the complexities of race, sexuality and the intricate web of family trees. A truly beautiful read.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this. I liked the subtle zombie stuff. I liked the history stuff. I mostly liked the reflections on being mixed race in Australia over the centuries. as a fellow half Chinese half Anglo Australian, thanks Steve MinOn for writing this wonderful novel!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

#2 in reading authors for the Whitsundays Writers Festival 2025.

This is a very unique book! We follow our main character Stephen, who has just died, as he walks from Brisbane to Innisfail and ponders his history, trying to discover who he was. He is the son of immigrants, one Chinese, one Irish, but the one that has been in Australia and the one who just got off the ship are not what you’d expect. Stephen, and his other family members in the spilt timeline narrative, discuss identity, sexuality, expectations and prejudices against them and well as prejudices they may have been subconsciously holding.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my kind of a book: some history, some family dynamics, some crazy stuff going on. I loved it! I hope Steve MinOn will get Miles Frankiln next year.

[Karen Commadeur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very different to what I’d normally read. Can’t wait to get back to book club to discuss it. Interesting perspective on issues-mixed race, identity, family, upbringing, death.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen Bolin leaves a note by his deathbed requesting that his sisters take his body back to his birthplace in Far North Queensland. They ignore his request and Stephen’s corpse, as a kind of jiangshi, makes the journey alone.
Through his journey we get glimpses of the family history, from the goldfields of the 1860s where his Chinese great-grandfather lived, through his Scottish grandparents migration as ten-pound poms, to his and his sisters mixed-race heritage, sexuality and more.
This is a fascinating book, poignant, satirical, humorous. Initially it is somewhat challenging in its structure as it changes time, place and character frequently all interspersed with Stephen's corpse's journey. Although everything comes together in the end I would like to revisit this novel in the future as I am sure I would get more from it knowing what I now know having read it.
A debut novel that I found really interesting in its writing and its exploration of a multi generational family saga with questions of race and racism, identity, and sexuality. Some autofiction here?

[Annette Chidzey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been chosen for an upcoming book discussion at a book club gathering - while I may not normally have chosen to read it myself, I found it to be engaging especially in terms of the familial generations that we encounter across the narrative as well as the structure of the writing itself. The concept of a corpse making a pilgrimage to better discern and understand what was not immediately apparent during its life proves to raise interesting questions for the reader and should stimulate interesting discussion.
Parts were a bit gruesome but the notion of being drawn back to home and one’s roots upon death is a reflection that provokes further contemplation after the reading is finalised. It could have been 3.5 at least - limited by the rating system yet again.

[Nadia Mahjouri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a beautiful debut! Touching tender and beautifully written, it was a 5 star read!

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yet another well written intergenerational story with a most interesting premise: the trek !
This is a product of a very fertile imagination and as a voracious reader I thank you

[Meghann Kenkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars for me. I liked the concept and enjoyed the multiple timelines but just didn’t connect with it a ton for some reason.

[Sally Clowes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. The Jiangshi element was fascinating and I was cheering him on to Innisfail. Beautiful writing about family dynamics and personal history.

I heard Steve MinOn interviewed on ABC radio (Australia) in April. Hearing it was about his birthplace Innisfail grabbed my attention. It was my Mother's birthplace too, in 1926. My Grandfather was Charles Hing.

The end of this story was really touching. Thanks Steve. 🧧

[D'face · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book with dual narratives that come together and intertwined. A gay man of Chinese heritage dies and asks that his body be carried by his sisters to far North Queensland. They refuse so the body sets off alone, travelling at night occasionally stopping to suck the life out of an unfortunate person he bumps into. A second narrative explains how Steve got here from his childhood in Queensland to joining an ad agency to travelling to the UK and back again as his father is dying and his sister getting married. Another narrative reaches back to the first generations of the family in Australia from China and Ireland linking up with a large family reunion in the present day where the descendants grapple with their hidden racism. Fun and macabre and a novel approach to Australian family history.

[Anne Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

The protagonist of Steve MinOn’s debut novel “First Name Second Name”, Stephen Bolin, is a mixed-race gay man born in North Queensland, a background very similar to MinOn’s own. However, the reader shouldn’t assume too strong an autobiographical influence, as the novel’s Stephen narrates his story as a dead man. It begins with a note he’s left at his deathbed for his sisters asking them to repatriate his remains back to Innisfail, his birthplace. He also stipulates the means of transport – they should carry his body strapped to a litter made from poles of bamboo. When his sisters, unsurprisingly, don’t cooperate, he makes the pilgrimage himself as a decomposing corpse.

This bizarre request is inspired by the Chinese folkloric concept of “jiāngshī”, an undead or reanimated corpse called a Chinese hopping vampire. The story itself, however, is concerned less with myth and legend than with the genealogy of Stephen’s family, incorporating the Chinese diaspora in Australia, beginning with his Chinese great-grandfather arriving in the goldfields of 1860s Queensland. Four successive generations of his family are depicted, struggling to find their way in a culture where racial identity and origins are consistently fraught issues and where those who don’t belong are alienated.

MinOn writes well and in this novel, he’s successfully depicted how the divisive nature of modern Australia has been shaped by history. As well, he’s devised a highly inventive and original means of telling his story.

[Chantelle B Pearce · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I appreciate the premise and quality writing in this book, I really struggled with this book; the plot was just not for me.

[Cass Moriarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve MinOn’s debut FIRST NAME SECOND NAME (UQP 2025) is part literary fiction, part autofiction, part literary horror, part coming of age story, part historical fiction. MinOn gathers together these many strands of writerly straw and spins them into a single gold thread which not only pulls the reader through the narrative, but gives us a shiny, glittering focus that becomes so much more than the sum of its parts, enough to propel the reader and give the story background, heft and context. FIRST NAME SECOND NAME is highly original, a sophisticated yet relatable story told in the unique voice of Steven Bolin, a character who will haunt your dreams (but in an entirely pleasant way).

Bolin wakes up dead from the opening page. That seems an impossibility, but MinOn is in the business of making the impossible happen. While it remains unclear how he died until towards the end of the novel, Bolin ‘wakes’ in 2002 to find that although he is definitely dead (he is in a morgue after all, with an identifying toe tag), he inexplicably has some sort of consciousness.

Before his death, Bolin had left a note for his sisters, asking them to follow a distinct set of instructions after his demise, including stringing him upright between bamboo poles and walking him home to the north Queensland town of Innisfail (his birthplace).

‘The journey will be long and difficult, one thousand miles,’ his note says. ‘Try not to be too obvious. Stick to the backroads. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you get there.’

His sisters, Carmel and Leanne, cannot fathom the note or its meaning, putting it down to Bolin’s disorientation before his death. Walk a dead body one thousand miles? Ridiculous. And so Bolin, to his disappointment, finds that he must undertake this journey himself, following his own instructions. He carries his gradually disintegrating, decomposing body northwards, pulled onwards by an innate sense of destination and meaning that emanates from somewhere in his decaying abdomen.

His journey is that of the jiangshi, a Chinese ghost or hopping vampire, walked by their family back to their place of birth after their death. Bolin’s travel northwards is not something he can control; in fact it seems there is very little he can control: he is dead but he is sentient; he has little influence over his corporal body but he is compelled to trudge northwards; he has only good intentions and kind thoughts but is required to conduct some nasty business along the way in order to keep himself going. The hard facts of decay necessitate the urgent stealing of life. Each alternate chapter is the story of jiangshi and his journey, and it is equal parts horrifying, fascinating, satisfying and compelling. The reader is cheering Bolin on as he creeps closer towards his goal, even while rationally understanding the strangeness of the situation. In the skilled hands of MinOn, this idea of a disintegrating corpse, with rotting flesh and bits falling off, does not invoke revulsion in the reader so much as a certain whimsy and optimism that he will achieve his goal.

The other alternate chapters are historical fiction, snippets of life taken from Bolin’s ancestors and the intimate stories of their lives. We start in 1878, with the Chinese man Pan Bo Lin who marries Scottish lass Bridget Wilkie (taken from MinOn’s own heritage). But there is confusion over what Bridget’s married name should be. Ostensibly, Pan is her husband’s last name, and Bo Lin is his first name, but she unilaterally decides that she prefers Bridget Bo Lin (which she shortens to Bridget Bolin) to Bridget Pan. And so an entire history of naming is changed with one stroke of a marriage pen.

MinOn helpfully provides a family tree at the beginning of the novel, which allows the reader to check back periodically to see who is who and where they fit in the order of the families that sprout from the union of Pan Bo Lin and Bridget Wilkie.

The author has a knack for writing a single chapter outlining an incident or a series of events from Bolin’s historical familial past, which is in itself a tight and contained short story, but from which springs the next part of his history in an organic way. So we go from the chapter set in 1878 to 1922 in Scotland and the origin story of his Scottish forebears, his great-grandmother Elspeth Milne and her dalliance with The Lodger. From there to 1925 where we are given more details about this ever-growing, sprawling family. Then to 1930 and on, until eventually we catch up with Steven Bolin in the modern day (well, the 80’s and 90’s). Steven Bolin is by now a young man struggling with his identity, both as part Asian and a gay man, struggles which his family do not understand (or in some cases, even know about) and which send him on a self-destructive passage of drugs, reckless relationships and self-sabotaging behaviour. The last quarter of the book is the culmination of all of Bolin’s history, culture and family and how this combined history has led him to become the person he is now.

Set all over the world but returning (as does Bolin) to his home state of Queensland, FIRST NAME SECOND NAME explores themes of identity, sexual awakening and curiosity, desire, passion, racial discrimination, cultural history, family ties, the thin meniscus between life and death and what might possibly lie between. It examines loneliness and what it means to be alone, from the point of view of many of the characters, both historical and contemporary. It questions the very purpose of life, and of death. And the ending is satisfyingly circular.

As an unpublished manuscript, this extraordinarily original story won the Queensland Literary Awards Glendower Award and I feel sure it will go on to win or be shortlisted for many more awards. It is a story both global and personal, both universal and intimate, both profound and accessible.

[Natalia Figueroa Barroso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve MinOn, a Scottish Chinese Australian writer from Queensland, debuts with First Name Second Name—a genre-defying novel that blends autobiographical fiction, historical reflection, and supernatural folklore. At its centre is Stephen Bolin, a vividly imagined alter ego who, like MinOn, grapples with the complexities of racial, familial, and sexual identity. But Stephen is also dead—resurrected as a jiangshi, a hopping Chinese zombie—making his way back to his birthplace in far north Queensland.

With mordant humour, sharp wit, and stylistic daring, MinOn weaves a rich, satirical narrative that confronts identity, belonging, and cultural memory. Drawing from his Chinese and Scottish heritage, the novel pulses with emotional depth and biting commentary, anchored in a uniquely diasporic experience. Bold, layered, and darkly funny, First Name Second Name marks the arrival of an original and powerful new literary voice.

[Tethysnz · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were at least three stories in this book. A historical story about a Chinese immigrant, a contemporary story about the immigrants descendants particularly that of Stephen Bolin, a gay man unable to be honest about his sexuality with his family, and the story of Stephen’s ghosts journey from Brisbane to Innisfail in North Queensland.
Any one of these stories could have been told in more detail but I found the combination to be annoying as huge chunks of time were missing.
The author writes well and I would probably read something else by him, but this wasn’t really my cup of tea.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Evocative novel of a Chinese North Queensland family and their descendent, a young gay man who becomes a jiāngshī following his early demise. The passages with the reanimated corpse were the most mysterious & enjoyable. It reminded here of the ghost of "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida". While the stories of different generations of a Queensland family reminded me of the memoirs of William Yang. However often the characterisation faltered. I couldn't piece together how the decent young Willie became the curmudgeonly old man and Stephen's own story dissolved, over too soon & too often a clunky & rushed exchange of earnest dialogue to explain things along. We wanted a more satisfying story arch for our protagonist; albeit a tragic one. A lot remained unanswered or under explored. Overall I felt the ending was hurried, which is a shame as I was enjoying the read. I thought if left to unfold in a longer book, allowing more threads to weave together, it would have been more magnificent

[Jen]

🎧 DNF. I was really interested in the premise and description of this book. Our family has some distant Chinese immigrant ancestry too from Australian goldfields time, with white/UK intermarriage too. But apart from the first few chapters, the structure of the book didn’t allow me to maintain the interest I had started with. I felt there was not enough story told from Stephen’s point of view.

I would have liked more of Stephen’s ‘corpse journey’ back to Innisfail as these were all very short chapters compared to the chapters about his ancestors. And I would have liked Stephen’s presence or story narrative voice to be there in chapters about his ancestors, instead of them just being told as 3rd person chapters without any real connection to Stephen. This would have added to length, but I would have been ok with less detail about some of the ancestor’s lives.

[Karen Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve MinOn's debut novel had me crying, laughing and cringing all at once, as it crosses genres and timelines in this well crafted and beautifully written story about Stephen Bolin's corpse quest for peace.
Stephen's Chinese/Scottish ancestry of early migrant Australia is retold with a depth of feeling and emotion that leaves you knowing exactly how life was lived.
Intertwined with this is Stephen's own life story and the struggles he faced as a young Brisbane man trying to find his place in the world.
The concept of a corpse on a pilgrimage to his final resting place is unique and one that MinOn has articulated with aplomb.
I did not want this story to end, a must read novel.

[Andrew Chidzey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was chosen by my local book club for our second study of 2025 - initially I found the writing quite disjointed and struggled to follow the competing timelines however as the novel progressed this started to make more sense and became quite engaging. This novel charts themes of sexuality, identity, loss, ageing and the relationships we make and lose on our life journey. I found it an engaging story though think some stronger editing would have strengthened the overall reading experience. Ultimately I’d give this 4 stars (3.5) and 7 out of 10 for our book club rating.

[Brendon Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently finished Steve MinOn's: First name; second name and was quickly captivated!

While the characters didn’t exactly feel like old friends—so to speak—their struggles and triumphs still resonated with me.

Steve has this wonderful talent for weaving everyday moments into something profound, making you pause and reflect on your own relationships.

The pacing was perfect—a legitimate page-turner—but also didn't want it to end.

If you're looking for a unique story that stays with you long after the final page, this is absolutely it.

A genuine treasure of a book!