The story is set in colonial Hong Kong and spans four decades from the late 1940s. Historic events that took place in that period have provided inspiration for much of the story background and some of the episodes. Wendy and Diana are childhood playmates in the 50s. From their early teens, their fates take divergent paths. They become life-long enemies Wendy trudges through a miserable childhood and youth in a broken home and the only solace in her early life is the friendship of Edward, Diana's kid brother. Stomaching one mischance after another, she promises herself that there's nothing she can't overcome by sheer will. Diana seems to have come to this world just to be pampered by luck, glamour and wealth. Her father, a property tycoon whose wealth began heaping in the pre-anti-corruption days, teaches her that there's nothing money can't buy. No one has stronger faith than she in her glorious destiny. As it turns out, Wendy and Diana are both proven wrong. Before they take their final bow in the story, their paths take life-altering twists and turns......
About the Author: Alice Poon was born, grew up and spent a portion of her adult years in Hong Kong. She is now a semi-retiree living in British Columbia, Canada, trying at long last to fulfill a dream of her high school days - to be a writer. Shifts of fortune in many Hong Kong people's lives in the four decades leading up to the change of sovereignty fascinate her and have inspired her to write her debut novel, "Fated and Fateless". The story is told through two female characters' contrasting life journeys in Hong Kong's colonial days. Extensive work experiences in Hong Kong's property development industry plus her own observation and research led her to write the non-fiction title "Land and the Ruling Class in Hong Kong" in late 2003 and to self-publish it in late 2005. The book was featured as Editor's Choice: Scholarly in the 2007 Canadian Book Review Annual. When this book was translated and published in Chinese in 2010, it became a huge bestseller in Hong Kong and the Mainland, following which a second English edition was published and promoted overseas. The Chinese edition also won the 4th Hong Kong Book Prize in June 2011. Lately she has been enamored with novels by 19th century French realist and naturalist writers. Apart from reading, she keeps a blog at the online magazine Asia Sentinel where she writes about Hong Kong current events and cultural subjects. Her near-term plan is to write a historic novel set in Hong Kong and/or Greater China in the World War II era.