You are Eating an Orange. You are Naked.

Longlisted for Canada Reads 2021

A young translator travels from his home in Toronto to Hong Kong, Macau, Prague, Tokyo. His unnamed lover comes with him: in restaurants and hotel rooms, they entertain each other with comic and enigmatic folk tales. Yet their verbal play and philosophical questions mask the fragility of their own relationship, which is made still more tenuous by he woman's unexplained disappearances.

You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked. is an intimate novel of memory and longing that challenges Western tropes and Orientalism. Embracing the playful surrealism of Haruki Murakami and the atmospheric narratives of filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, Sheung-King's debut is at once lyrical and punctuated, and wholly unique, and marks the arrival of a bold new voice in Canadian literature.

Praise for You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked.:

"Sheung-King has written a wonderfully unexpected and maverick love story but also a novel of ideas that hopscotches between Toronto, Macau, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Prague. It is enchanting, funny, and a joy to read." —Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life

"A tale that oozos the horror and confusion of love, while staying somehow still desperately romantic. It gives the cold shoulder to the dominant gaze and its demands to control the Asian body, carving out a thrilling space beyond whiteness. I didn't want it to end." —Thea Lim, author of An Ocean of Minutes, finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize