"In this novel Austin Coates offers a unique insight into the small world of Britain's Chinese colony of Hong Kong in the 1950s. The Road shows us the brittle comedy of colonial manners; but at the same time the drama of the construction of a road, with i

"Affectionately yet acutely drawn, and written in a charming style that will resonate with discerning readers, The Road elegantly evokes rural and urban life and people from a vastly different, yet relatively recent, era in Hong Kong's past." --Jason Wordi

Austin Coates (1922-97), a former senior British civil servant in Hong Kong, Malaya, and Sarawak, left government service soon after completing this novel to pursue a professional writing career. Widely regarded as the most distinguished English-language author in Hong Kong, Coates remained a long-time Hong Kong resident, later dividing his time between Hong Kong and Portugal, where he died. Among his other books are The City of Broken Promises--a novel of eighteenth-century Macao--and two histories A Macao Narrative and Macau and the British. All three books are also available in the Echoes series from Hong Kong University Press.