Can popular fiction engage parts of the citizenry that dense political arguments have not been able to reach? In Kuan’s Wonderland, a mirror is held up to the absurdities that dwell behind the façade of 21st century civilization, with the help of “a fantasy universe unlike any that has come before” (President, the Independent Publishers Guild).
The novel opens with a ten-year old boy being captured and sent to the strange realm of Shiyan, where no one is what they appear to be. Threatened with torture, Kuan is told to reveal a secret he does not even know he possesses.
At birth he had been taken away from China by his father to live in a remote part of the world. Oddly, every now and then he would show signs of intelligence far beyond his years, but to his father’s immense disappointment, most of the time he behaved simply like an ordinary child. But life could not go on as before once he was snatched from his home. As he waits in vain to be rescued, he begins to wonder if he will have to make his own way back if he is ever to reunite with his father.
As Kuan struggles to flee Shiyan, he has to make sense of the many ambivalent characters who may help or hinder him. He discovers that the agent who interrogated him has a dark secret of his own. He desperately wants to trust the red-haired doctor working for his captors even though he knows nothing about her. He is brought before the enigmatic Chairman, the most powerful figure in Shiyan, whose intentions towards him remain uncertain. And there is the mysterious being called Amo, also caught up in Shiyan against her will, but capable of leading them both to safety if she manages to keep herself alive for long enough.
Like a set of Chinese Boxes, as more plot-twists are unpacked, more are revealed within Kuan’s Wonderland. Through the disturbing experiences he endures with Blessing, Elephantium, the Purgoratory, and the dreaded Potokans, Kuan edges ever closer to a confrontation with the real enemy in Shiyan. Finally, he realises what he must do, even if it means facing up to the secret about his father that has been kept from him all those years.
The dark fable concludes its journey as the soothing illusions of the prevailing world order fall away, revealing the grotesque treatment of the vulnerable perpetrated in the name of peace and prosperity.
It leaves us with a choice: find escapist comfort and pretend that all is well; or escape from unjust acts by rallying opposition to end them.
[Kuan’s Wonderland, by Henry Tam, is available from Amazon.co.uk; or Amazon.com.
Customer reviews can be found at: Kuan’s Wonderland (Reviews)
The Kindle edition can be downloaded to any device including PC, Mac, iPad, Android, provided it has received a free Kindle reading app. The Amazon page for the book will indicate how to obtain the app.]
