A Painted Moment

The sakura have fallen and frost is gaining ground. Yun, Rachel’s best friend has died, and she is at a loss. With his passing, she mourns the fabric of their friendship and the eternal warmth of his family. Heading back to the island for the funeral are some of their oldest and closest friends; Chloe, a repressed perfectionist, and Olivia, golden child, both of whom she will grieve with and seek solace in. Along with their consolations, they bring with them their own issues and anger, dredging up buried fissures in their history. The time of their reunion also becomes a time of questioning, as they measure the choices they have made and wonder at the happy ending they each seek. And finally, lost in the folds of the past, Rachel is haunted by memories and confronted by the need to forge her own future. A PAINTED MOMENT is a story of friends, forgiveness and the paths we walk in life. In the work of Jennifer Ching, Hong Kong has found a new and welcome voice in fiction. And, as one among the many worlds well-chosen words create, A Painted Moment is a slender, but significant, novel. In it, the sum total of human experience pushes forward a fraction, inclining immeasurably (if perceptibly) towards the light. There is growth, there is being, there will be a tomorrow. I look forward to Ms Ching’s next novel unreservedly. - Stuart Christie, HKADC Examiner The main themes of the novel are self-growth and friendship. Ching has painstakingly illustrated the inevitable moment of self-independence pressing upon us in due time. - Flora Mak, in Cha: An Asian literary Journal, Issue 12, September 2010.