"Sonia Leung's The Girl Who Dreamed is an uncompromising and inspiring account of resilience and perseverance in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. In a beautifully crafted narrative, rich with allusions to the classics of Chinese literature, Leung details how the life of one girl who dreamed of self-actualisation in Hong Kong was brutally unraveled by those she trusted shortly after rejoining her family in a slum in Diamond Hill. Leung's story - which took 10 years to write - is all the more remarkable considering she took her first English class in Hong Kong aged 12. The Girl Who Dreamed marks something of a watershed moment in memoir-writing in Hong Kong literature. Never before have the first-hand experiences of the impoverished mainland immigrants arriving into Hong Kong in the 1980s been so carefully narrated from a girl's and then a young woman's perspective. The narrative of brutal gendered violence experienced at the hands of local and expat men is surely a story that rings true for many women who have migrated to Hong Kong. Leung's memoir gives readers the opportunity to come to terms with the trauma of migration coupled with violence that so many experienced. But her narrative goes further still; in a remarkable display of fortitude and authorial conviction, Leung repeatedly demonstrates how hope can be found in reading and in writing, even when pain becomes too suffocating to endure or even acknowledge.

" - Michael O'Sullivan, author of Lockdown Lovers.