The books
Lai Yin 麗賢 is the author of literary nonfiction books:
- What Women Already Know
- What Women Remember
- What Women Hold
Hong Kong to Australia and back.
Hong Kong to Europe.
Three Eurasian daughters.
Two Portuguese Water Dogs.
One Gweilo husband.
The books come from the same life recorded in SHEHOLDS 她拿著.
Each gathers the writing around a different part of that life.
What Women Already Know
What Women Already Know is about female knowledge before explanation.
Desire.
Authority.
Sex.
Attachment.
Instinct.
Power.
The body.
The book gathers the moments in which a woman recognises what she knows and begins to act from it.
What Women Remember
What Women Remember begins with the body and what it carries across years, countries and generations.
Hong Kong.
Australia.
Marriage.
Motherhood.
Violence.
Loss.
Return.
The book follows memory as it reappears through places, relationships, family stories and the body itself.
What Women Hold
What Women Hold is about the work of holding a house.
Marriage.
Children.
Parents.
Food.
Money.
Illness.
Travel.
Care.
The book follows one woman through the daily labour of keeping a family moving while the people inside it grow, leave, return, age and change.
The work
The same husband, daughters, dogs, parents, friends and places return across all three books.
Children grow.
Parents age.
Bodies change.
Journeys continue.
A detail introduced in one book may return in another carrying a different weight.
Together, the books form a record of one woman, one marriage, one family and the life held around them.
About Lai Yin
Lai Yin was born in Hong Kong and educated in Australia.
She lives in France with her husband, three daughters and two Portuguese Water Dogs.
Her writing draws on a life lived across Hong Kong, Australia, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
She is the author of Somatic Placement and the founder of SHEHOLDS 她拿著.
Media
For interviews, profiles, features, speaking enquiries, review copies, bookseller information or collaborations:
Rights
For translation, publication, audio or other rights enquiries:
All original writing © SHEHOLDS.