Little Flame

Little Flame is a collection of short fiction by Hong Kong writer Yi Shu, containing six stories: 'Little Flame,' 'Change of Heart,' 'Comedy,' 'Summer Dream,' 'Broken Heart,' and 'Silt,' totaling about 80,000 characters. The title story, 'Little Flame,' begins with an encounter in the Place Vendôme in Paris: the narrator is introduced by a friend, Chen Peter, to a young woman nicknamed 'Little Flame'—her real name is a transliteration, Fiammanda, which means 'little flame' in Italian. Plainly dressed yet wealthy and willful, she is stuck in an unrequited love; the narrator, with the clarity and goodwill of an observer, watches this beautiful yet exhausting love drama. The other stories each portray the fading of affection, misunderstandings, and coincidences among urban men and women: some are entangled by old loves, some waver between self-respect and attachment, and one, like the sixteen-year-old schoolgirl in 'Silt,' suppresses her feelings and gives up the person she likes because a friend said she 'liked' him. Yi Shu habitually uses short, crisp sentences and witty, sharp dialogue to capture the rhythm and social manners of Hong Kong urban life with lightness and edge, and her endings are often unexpected, leaving a lingering aftertaste. This edition was published by Cosmos Books Ltd. and is the fiftieth title in the Yi Shu Series.