Illuminated Ruins

Hong Kong, 1956. On the heights of The Peak, the only way to survive the past is to bury it.

For Uri Weiss and his wife, Lujza, life in the British colony is a tailored mask. Hungarian Jewish doctors who escaped the wreckage of Europe only to endure Japanese occupation, they have rebuilt themselves through a fragile, assimilated restraint.

The arrival of the Mackays upends this peace. Hugh is a charismatic American with shadowy connections and Nancy is his effortlessly poised wife. As the families entwine, their daughters – Millie and Anne – form a bond so intense it threatens to consume them.

While the adults navigate the social rituals of the colony, the children retreat to the island’s illuminated ruins. Playing among bombed-out shells and wartime bunkers, they mirror a world of missions and cover stories. But when Anne reveals a truth Millie’s parents have kept unspoken for a decade, the foundations of their universe fracture.

As the Suez Crisis ignites, the children’s games lead them from the safety of The Peak into the Triad-controlled underworld of the Walled City. In a landscape of stolen identities, both families must finally confront the violence they can no longer outrun.

PRAISE FOR A UNIVERSE OF SUFFICIENT SIZE:

‘A fascinating, compelling, beautifully written novel.’—Liane Moriarty

‘Miriam Sved has woven three generations and two periods of history into a page-turning, emotional rollercoaster to remind us all that families are messy, complicated and that the repercussions of decisions made decades ago can come back to haunt you… I cannot recommend this book highly enough.’—Heather Morris