Five books that won't fail to pique your interest this summer

Xia Yin

Following the recent movie, Hidden Man, adaptation of the novel, written by Zhang Beihai, that was first published in China in 2007, a new version of the martial arts novel Xia Yin is available.

It tells the story of a chivalrous young man in the 1930s who recently returns to Peking after studying in the United States. He begins to explore the alleyways of the ancient city in a bid to find the identity of the murderer in a crime that happened five years ago.

Zhang spent years sifting through hundreds of both Chinese and English books about the era, in a bid to accurately portray the city where he was born as it was in 1936. The book has a special draw for readers who, like me, live in the capital.