Everyday Movement - by Gigi L Leung (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"The story centers on ordinary people pulled into extraordinary violence and the ways in which their choices reshape their identity long after the streets are empty." --Washington Post

"A powerful novel set in a Hong Kong that feels remarkably universal." --Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West

"A dazzling, page-turning novel...Gripping, specific, important, and highly satisfying." --Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or

A powerful, award-winning novel that follows the lives of two women as democracy starts to crumble in Hong Kong

On a weekend morning, college roommates Ah Lei and Panda wake up with very different reactions to the night before. They have been chased and tear-gassed in the streets of their city after joining tens of thousands of others to protest a national security law that would effectively spell the end of democracy in Hong Kong. Ah Lei can't get out of bed, her heart heavy with the lingering images of the police and the violence on the streets, and her worries about the future of her hometown. Panda, whose resistance is no less ardent, puts on a sundress, lines her eyes, and urges Ah Lei to join her for brunch.

While the demonstrations rage, the routine of life also persists for Ah Lei, Panda, and people in their orbits. They attend family gatherings, fight with their mothers, try and fail to focus at work on Mondays, and make time for dinner dates and app hookups. But the looming political tension and anxiety for the future transform such everyday encounters. In the span of a few months, life as they know it seems to become a mirage: the comfort of air-conditioned shopping malls is disrupted by bloodshed; tear gas and the sounds of rubber bullets amid neon signs strangely evoke happier memories of summer night fireworks.

Gigi L. Leung's visceral novel Everyday Movement reveals existential questions that interrupt normal life: belonging, patriotism, and the meaningfulness of an electoral democracy, as well as the pampering sense of normalcy created by consumerism. Fiery and tender, Leung's writing captures the heartbreak, turmoil, and rebirth in bearing witness to and engaging with a shattering reality.

Review Quotes

"The story centers on ordinary people pulled into extraordinary violence and the ways in which their choices reshape their identity long after the streets are empty." --Washington Post

"Tender and finely drawn." - New York Review of Books

"Powerful...Leung's writing shows the existential dichotomy of everyday living against the backdrop of a shattering reality." --Electric Literature

"This is a quietly passionate debut that centers the depth of conviction and great significance of social movements in the lives of those who care intimately about striving for democracy." --Booklist

"Masterfully captures this complicated reality that political violence upends daily life, and yet in many ways, daily life still continues, and the surreal quality of that. That is, until the violence escalates to life-shattering levels." - BookRiot, most anticipated books in translation 2026

"Well-rounded debut...an intimate portrait of bravery in the face of repression." --Publishers Weekly

"A cinematic, sympathetic view of the personal costs of political conflict, many of which will be frighteningly familiar." --Kirkus Reviews

"A vivid, kaleidoscopic portrait of the Hong Kong protests that brings the chaos of a political moment to a human level. At its heart a family story, Gigi Leung has written a book that offers no easy villains, instead relishing the interiority of its wide cast of sympathetic, conflicted characters. If textbooks can capture history, Everyday Movement proves that fiction can carry it forward through time." --Kevin Nguyen, author of New Waves

"A powerful novel set in a Hong Kong that feels remarkably universal." --Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West

"I loved Everyday Movement! A dazzling page-turning novel, tracing the varied domestic, interpersonal, romantic, ethical, financial, and political considerations at work on a cast of interconnected characters during the Hong Kong protests of 2019. Gripping, specific, important, and highly satisfying." --Elif Batuman, author of The Idiot and Either/Or

"The question raised by Everyday Movement, in all its vigor and glorious complexity, is no smaller than: What is the right way to live? This is a novel which dares to confront the borders between everyday behavior and ethical self, personal contentment and public feeling, and ultimately compels us to face who we are and who we want to be." --Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning

About the Author

Gigi L. Leung is a writer of fiction and poetry. Her work was a finalist for the Taipei Literary Award and won a Golden Tripod Award in 2024. She grew up in Hong Kong and lives in Taipei.

Jennifer Feeley translates the cult favorite Hong Kong writer Xi Xi, for which she won the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize and a Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Award. She was a National Endowment for the Arts fellow in 2019.