Bapo

by Nicholas Jose

The title of Nicholas Jose's new collection of stories refers to a form of Chinese painting that tricks the eye into thinking what it sees is a collage of fragments. Bapo literally means "eight broken", where eight is a Chinese lucky number and "broken" implies that luck has run out - though the term also suggests that there's another kind of luck, in simply surviving, and being able to hold the pieces of one's life together in some sort of order.

Jose's stories feature a cast of characters affected by time or chance in different ways, artists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, immigrants, families at the crossroads. Many explore Australia's relationship to China or have echoes of China in them; others dwell on the qualities of memory, resilience, play and adventure - qualities which are implicit in the form of bapo, and characteristic of Jose's writing as a whole.

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Born Robert Nicholas Jose in London, England, to Australian parents, Nicholas Jose grew up mostly in Adelaide, South Australia. He was educated at the Australian National University and Oxford University. He has traveled extensively, particularly in China, where he worked from 1986 to 1990. He was President of Sydney PEN from 2002 to 2005 and currently holds the Chair of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Malia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of short stories; many dealing with aspects of China and Australia and how they interrelate. There are many themes dealt with in an interesting and intelligent way in this collection of stories, including desire, obsession, power and passion.