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Book Review of Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghosts
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As the British colony of Hong Kong nervously prepares for its reunification with China, three expatriates (two Australians and one New Zealander) meet with devastating consequences. To the Chinese, all Westerners are "ghosts," and these young spirits drift through Hong Kong's crowded streets, haunted by their past and hungry for something more (love, sex, fame). Self-conscious and inhibited, Rachel Gallagher envies her friend Anne-Louise's exuberance and "talent for life," but Rachel has a successful career as a painter which pains Anne-Louise, whose own artistic ambitions have been thwarted by her psychotic breakdown. When both women fall in love with Martin Bannister, a handsome and troubled futures broker, tragedy is inevitable.