Strangers at the Red Door: A Novel

by Dennis Bock

A foreign ghostwriter visiting Hong Kong partners up with the disembodied spirit of the most dangerous novelist in China to find a local bookseller who’s been disappeared by the authorities after attempting to smuggle the novelist’s subversive masterpiece onto the mainland

At a train station in China, three people meet, only two of whom are actually alive. The first is Faron Jones, on his way to Hong Kong to interview an Iranian film director-turned-dissident holed up in the Japanese consulate. The second is Mildred Chen, a Hong Kong bookseller detained at the border crossing for attempting to deliver copies of the most dangerous novel in China over to the mainland. The third is the deceased author of that very novel, Jiang Ming, now a wandering spirit trapped in the middle world between life and death.
Soon after this encounter, and for no reason he can understand, Faron learns that he’s suddenly acquired flawless Mandarin and Cantonese, languages only a day earlier he had no knowledge of. Slowly, the impossible truth that another man’s soul has joined his own and now speaks in his voice becomes maddeningly undeniable. With this comes Jiang Ming’s extraordinary claim and his urgent request of Faron, and so the ghostwriter and the spirit of the dead novelist trapped within him set upon a search for the one person—the disappeared bookseller—who’s able to deliver the Chinese novelist’s spirit to his final resting place.

Instantly propulsive, wholly original, and like a mirror for our current times, Strangers at the Red Door follows these characters and their quests for freedom, love, and reconciliation. It explores a world in which the boundaries of the physical and the spiritual blur; countries facing uncertain futures intersect; and the struggle of the artist against political oppression becomes an essential act of survival.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Magical Realism

288 pages, Paperback

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[Sarah Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book Review: Strangers at the Red Door by Dennis Bock
Rating: 4.7/5

A Haunting Meditation on Art, Oppression, and the Afterlife
Dennis Bock’s Strangers at the Red Door is an original fusion of political thriller and metaphysical ghost story, set against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s fraught cultural landscape. The novel follows Faron Jones, a foreign ghostwriter whose life collides with the spirit of Jiang Ming, a banned Chinese novelist, and Mildred Chen, a bookseller vanished by authorities—a trio whose fates intertwine in a quest for artistic legacy and posthumous redemption. Bock masterfully blurs boundaries between the corporeal and spiritual, crafting a narrative that mirrors contemporary struggles for creative freedom under authoritarianism.

Emotional Resonance and Personal Reflections
Reading Strangers at the Red Door felt like witnessing a séance between genres. The premise—a living man haunted by a dead writer’s voice—unsettled me in the best way, evoking the eerie dissonance of Lincoln in the Bardo but with the urgency of a John le Carré novel. Faron’s sudden fluency in Mandarin (a supernatural gift) became a metaphor for the invasive power of art; I found myself questioning how much of our identities are borrowed or imposed. The scenes in Hong Kong’s liminal spaces—train stations, consulates—pulsed with claustrophobia, mirroring my own anxiety about censorship’s creeping reach.

Yet, the novel’s surrealism occasionally distanced me. Jiang Ming’s spirit, while poignant, sometimes felt more like a plot device than a fully realized character. I craved a deeper exploration of Mildred’s fate beyond her symbolic role as a disappeared dissident.

Constructive Criticism
- Pacing: The metaphysical mystery unfolds with instant propulsiveness, but the climax’s political stakes could benefit from sharper grounding in real-world parallels.
- Character Depth: Mildred’s off-page disappearance leaves an emotional void; her perspective might have enriched the thematic weight of sacrifice.
- Cultural Nuance: While Bock’s portrayal of China’s literary suppression is potent, the dichotomy between dangerous art and state power risks oversimplification.

Summary Takeaways:
- A Lincoln in the Bardo for the age of censorship—where ghosts fight harder than the living.
- Bock doesn’t just cross genres—he obliterates them in this thriller-meets-ghost story.
- For readers of The Orphan Master’s Son and Kafka on the Shore: a defiant ode to banned books.
- The most dangerous novel in China? No—this is it.
- Giller Prize-finalist Bock returns with his most audacious work yet.

Gratitude
Thank you to Edelweiss and HarperCollins for the advance copy. Bock’s mirror for our times is a testament to literature’s power to haunt regimes—and readers alike.

Final Verdict: A propulsive and unsettling triumph, docked 0.3 for spectral thinness, but essential for its bold reimagining of art’s afterlife.

Why Read It? To confront Bock’s unspoken question: When the state erases a writer, can their voice ever truly die?

[John Braden · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a novel where the author tells more than he shows, which renders the effort less interesting overall. The prose is often stentorian in tone, for example: “Ms. Khajenouri’s work as an auteur and actress had been little known abroad before a Cannes film festival jury declared her a miracle to behold.” All that’s missing is an exclamation point. At the same time phrasing throughout the novel is often clichéd: “She looked healthy and happy and confident, and but for a few early strands of grey that marked the passage of time…” And: “The clock was ticking.” The book has a lot of these well-worn, lazy phrases better suited for a Hallmark movie script.

In terms of characters, the story of the dissident Jiang Ming and the bookseller Mildred Chen, are the most interesting. The arrest and interrogation of these characters by the Chinese authorities is harrowing. However, Jiang Ming’s life, death and afterlife cover forty-eight pages. He pops in a couple of more times but without much agency compared to his introduction. Mildred Chen ultimate journey, which started out in such dire circumstances leading to a daring escape, is not well-handled in the last third of the story. The other characters are far less compelling; Faron Jones comes off as witless most of the time. (And what kind of ghost writer can afford a Toronto penthouse condo with a panoramic view of Lake Ontario? Magical Realism indeed.)

As is Bock’s wont in his writing, there are passages that appear to be writing for writing’s sake versus pushing along the story. Characters are introduced and dropped and the dialog between them is often forced. I will say there was a neat twist in the last section of the book that I should’ve seen coming, though again, it’s not played out as well as it could’ve been. Bock does tend to bolt from character to character, situation to situation, choosing not to land the punches he might’ve. Essentially, Bock is conflict-adverse and this can been in his novel, Going Home Again. (Again with another witless protagonist.)

In the end, Bock wants the best for his characters in a denouement that seems to go on forever including a reconciliation with a dying mother who is often referred to but little seen. Also, the explanation of the book's title and it's place in the story provoked eye-rolling. There is a longer, more developed, and interesting novel somewhere here struggling to get out.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a pretty unusual concept involving a ghost and is politically aware, but somehow is moving and thrilling. A ghostwriter (yeah, ha ha) travels to Hong Kong to discuss writing a book with an Iranian dissident holed up in an embassy, but plans change when the ghost of a Chinese novelist who was murdered by the government slips into his body. It’s not all bad—the ghostwriter suddenly becomes instantly fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, languages he didn’t speak a word of earlier. Anyway, the ghost is stuck between worlds and the only one who can release him is a Hong Kong bookseller who was attempting to smuggle his novel into China and has herself been arrested and disappeared by the government. That summation makes it sound a bit crazy, right? But it works and does make some strong points about political repression of art.

[Enid Wray]

Sigh… I have been both reading, and listening, to this title. Neither is a wholly satisfactory experience.

I’ve only kept going because I really wanted to see Mildred’s story through to its conclusion, but… there is way too much ‘interference’ along the way to getting there.

The story drags, on and on and on. Where was the editor? The writing is often ‘ponderous’ - serving no purpose vis-a-vis either character or plot development. Don’t get me started about Faron Jones - there is just so much wrong regarding he, his character, his life… and I just so don’t care. He bored me to tears.

Let’s just say I’m not the reader for this one and leave it at that.

DNF

[Sarita Molla · Rating 2 out of 5]

** 2.5 stars **

I had high hopes for the book thinking it would be mystical magic realism highlighting real life world events (i.e., Chinese and Iranian Goverment's violent censorship) but the pacing threw me off. It started off mysterious with multiple different narrators existing on the same timeline but the way the stories converged felt almost anti climactic. The buildup exploring these different narrators led to just a single non existent moment. I think the writing, while beautifully written, almost made it difficult to follow how these stories connected. Ultimately, the book started off promising but it felt like there were too many loose ends.

[Chyx Xyng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strangers at the Red Door is set in modern times and explores the themes of repression and resistance through the interconnected stories of a bookseller smuggling forbidden books and a dissident fleeing an authoritarian regime. Dennis effectively weaves the characters’ stories together towards the end of the novel, emphasizing the idea that “… the causes they were fighting for spoke to fundamental human freedoms.” Dennis Bock’s writing is powerful. The last time I experienced such a mix of dread and awe was when I read 1984 many years ago in high school. It is a book that haunts you long after reading it.

[Janice · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very unusual novel that combines aspects of political thriller, combined with a strange ghost stories with ruminations on time, memory and grief mixed in. There were points in the story when so much had happened and there were so many characters going in different directions that I was a little lost. I carried on through the story and was rewarded when the author pulled all the threads together in a cohesive way (without tidily wrapping it up with a bow). Overall I enjoyed the writing, the story and the peek into the China and Hong Kong.

[Laurie Bodley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please don’t miss out on reading Strangers at the Red Door. Written with utter skill and finesse, it took me on a ride full of suspense, poignancy, and a feast of the sights and sounds of China. Dennis Bock has woven an exquisite tapestry teeming with unexpected twists and turns that beautifully illustrates the challenges of living in our flawed world and navigating complicated relationships, emotions, regrets, and the heavy, horrifying hand of political oppression.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel touches on some current social and political issues. So beautifully written!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This unusual novel explores questions of intellectual and physical freedom and how far people may go to preserve them.

[Sonia Gionet · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made absolutely NO sense - so disjointed

[Stephanie H · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried but I just can’t get into this.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked most of this, story interesting but was a tad disappointed especially with all the great reviews which can do more harm sometimes

[Zo Smi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This feels an original work, heavily centered on the theme of political dissent, with principle victims from China and Iran. It melds a sense of fantasy that could come from Murakami with the criss-crossing of otherwise parallel lives across pivotal points of real historical events as echoed in Sebastian Faulks. The authorship quality is good, and you get drawn into each of the characters' plights to a meaningful level. I was particularly drawn into Mildred Chen's world (that could have a whole book to itself), but not so much into Faron Jones's. Overall, Bock manages to weave complex storylines and multiple characters without creating confusion for the reader.

As a former Hong Kong resident, I appreciate this work because Bock has given a voice to those who no longer dare to speak or who are already long-since imprisoned or disappeared just for expressing an opinion, hence me awarding this book five stars. However, those who are not particularly interested in recent HK history or human rights might not find this novel so appealing and will likely find it a mediocre read.

Free Jimmy Lai!!