Ghost Cities: Miles Franklin Literary Award 2025 Winner by Siang Lu – Our Review

Our Review… Winner of the Miles Franklin Award 2025, Ghost Cities is a phenomenal novel that is strange, funny, imaginative, intellectual and melancholic all at once. Told through multiple perspectives, Ghost Cities introduces us to Xiang, a young man in Sydney who is fired from his job as a translator when it is discovered he does not speak a word of Mandarin. After going viral for this embarrassing situation Xiang is offered an escape by the erratic and renowned film Director Baby Bao, who offers Xiang a job in one of the uninhabited megacities of China. Only this city isn’t empty,  it’s populated by actors hired by Boa to play ‘real life’. Running parallel to Xing’s journey is a story of a power hungry Chinese Imperial Emperor who rules without mercy and more than a little paranoia. It’s a world of scholars, banishments, royal decrees, food taster to the taster, a thousand emperor doubles and an imperial swine. Ghost Cities is a unique and original work that is a credit to Lu’s brilliance and masterful story telling. A novel that stretches the bounds of absurdity while confronting themes of language, displacement, identity and power. Both a powerful commentary and assuming page-turner, this book is a must read. Review by Jess @ Great Escape Books