Atlas : the archaeology of an imaginary city / Dung Kai-cheung ; translated by Dung Kai-cheung, Anders Hansson, and Bonnie S. McDougall.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Set in the long-lost City of Victoria (a fictional world similar to Hong Kong), Atlas is written from the unified perspective of future archaeologists struggling to rebuild a thrilling metropolis. Divided into four sections-"Theory," "The City," "Streets," and "Signs"-the novel reimagines Victoria through maps and other historical documents and artifacts, mixing real-world scenarios with purely imaginary people and events while incorporating anecdotes and actual and fictional social commentary and critique.

Much like the quasi-fictional adventures in map-reading and remapping explored by Paul Auster, Jorge Luis Borges, and Italo Calvino, Dung Kai-cheung's novel challenges the representation of place and history and the limits of technical and scientific media in reconstructing a history. It best exemplifies the author's versatility and experimentation, along with China's rapidly evolving literary culture, by blending fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a story about succeeding and failing to recapture the things we lose. Playing with a variety of styles and subjects, Dung Kai-cheung inventively engages with the fate of Hong Kong since its British "handover" in 1997, which officially marked the end of colonial rule and the beginning of an uncharted future.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

First published in 1997-as an indirect response to the Hong Kong handover-this marks Hong Kong native Dung's English debut in translation. A self-described "verbal collection of maps" imagines the reclamation of a future city of Victoria (Hong Kong) through maps, memories, anecdotes, and legends in an uneven hybrid mixture of fact and fiction, history and invention. The 51 essays are grouped in four sections-"Theory," "The City," "Streets," and "Signs"-and what begins as clever wordplay about maps as indicators of `place'-"Counterplace," "Commonplace," "Misplace," "Displace"-quickly devolves into lit-crit jargon-"Utopia," "Supertopia," "Subtopia,"."Unitopia, "Omnitopia." Most memorable are the (re)created histories of street names. Most promising is how "map legend signs enriched the vocabulary of maps," at least temporarily. VERDICT Although Dung "has been described as Hong Kong's most accomplished writer" according to translator McDougall, choosing Atlas with which to introduce his work in the West might prove to be a misstep. While readers devoted to intellectual engagement out of their narrative comfort zone might enjoy the literary gymnastics, most will probably not have the curiosity or patience to reach book's end.-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.