Where Is 'The Expatriates' Set Primarily?

I remember 'The Expatriates' getting some serious recognition in the literary world. It won the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, which is a huge deal in the book community. The novel was also a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, showing how its themes of displacement and cultural clashes resonated with readers. Author Janice Y.K. Lee's portrayal of expatriate life in Hong Kong struck a chord, earning praise for its emotional depth and vivid storytelling. The book made several 'best of' lists that year, including The New York Times Notable Books of 2016. If you haven't read it yet, I'd pair it with 'The Piano Teacher,' another Hong Kong-set novel that explores similar themes of identity and belonging.

I’ve been diving into 'The Expatriates' lately, and it’s one of those books that feels so real you start wondering if it’s ripped from headlines. The short answer? No, it’s not based on a single true story, but it’s steeped in realities that’ll make you nod along if you’ve ever lived abroad or known someone who has. The author, Janice Y.K. Lee, draws from the expat experience in Hong Kong, weaving together threads of privilege, displacement, and personal tragedy that echo real-life complexities. It’s fiction, but the kind that wears research and observation like a second skin—every detail, from the claustrophobic social circles to the cultural friction, rings unnervingly authentic. The novel follows three women—Mercy, Margaret, and Hilary—each navigating their own version of expat life, and their struggles are anything but imagined. Margaret’s grief after a family tragedy mirrors the isolation of parents in foreign communities who lose their support networks. Mercy’s recklessness as a young Korean-American in Hong Kong captures the dizzying freedom (and pitfalls) of being untethered from home. Hilary’s marital strife feels like a peek into private therapy sessions of couples who move abroad to fix what’s already broken. Lee doesn’t need true events to make this resonate; she taps into universal truths about identity and belonging, which hit harder than any biopic could. What makes it feel 'true' is the setting’s precision. Hong Kong isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a character—its crowded streets, its expat bubble where everyone knows everyone’s business, the way the city’s glitter can’t mask its inequalities. Lee lived there herself, and it shows. The book’s power comes from how it mirrors real expat dilemmas: the guilt of domestic workers’ treatment, the performative charity of the wealthy, the way trauma follows you even when you flee across oceans. It’s not a true story, but it’s truthful, and that’s what sticks with you long after the last page.

The main female characters in 'The Expatriates' are three women whose lives intersect in Hong Kong. Margaret is an American expat dealing with unimaginable grief after a family tragedy. She’s trying to rebuild her life while navigating the expat bubble. Mercy is a young Korean-American woman struggling with identity and purpose, hopping from job to job and relationship to relationship. Her story is raw and relatable, especially for anyone who’s ever felt adrift. Hilary is wealthy and seemingly perfect, but her marriage is crumbling, and her desperation for a child leads her down ethically murky paths. Each woman’s arc is distinct yet intertwined, showing different facets of expat life—privilege, isolation, and the search for belonging.

I binge-read 'The Expatriates' last summer and scoured every interview with the author Janice Y.K. Lee about potential follow-ups. As of now, there's no official sequel or spin-off announced. The novel wraps up its core story about three American women in Hong Kong pretty conclusively, but Lee has mentioned in podcasts that she's fascinated by side characters like Mercy's family in Seoul or Hilary's husband's backstory. She left enough threads that a spin-off could explore Margaret's life post-China or Essie's upbringing in the Philippines. For now, fans might enjoy Lee's other book 'The Piano Teacher'—it shares similar themes of displacement and has that lush, atmospheric writing style.

The novel 'The Expatriates' dives deep into the glittering yet isolating world of expats in Hong Kong through three women's lives. The author paints Hong Kong as a city of contrasts—luxury high-rises shadowed by cramped streets, expat bubble parties versus local wet markets. Margaret, a mother grieving her missing child, shows how tragedy exposes the fragility of expat privilege. Mercy, the young Korean-American, embodies the rootlessness of being neither local nor fully accepted by expat circles. Hilary's infertility struggle mirrors the emotional displacement many feel despite material comfort. The book nails how expats cling to each other yet remain strangers, bound by shared loneliness rather than genuine connection. It's a raw look at how wealth and Western passports don't shield anyone from human suffering.