Unquiet Heart Soliloquy

In modern-day China, a man has travelled to Shanghai on impulse to meet his online lover Luna, but she refuses to see him and soon disappears without a trace. He tries to forget her by immersing himself in dating apps, and also learns to appreciate the nuances within everyday Chinese life while he adjusts himself to mainland China as a member of the greater overseas Chinese diaspora. As the seasons change he falls in love with a budding photographer named Sofia, but with traces of Luna constantly reappearing in his life, will he ever find a way out of his unquiet predicament?

Unquiet Heart Soliloquy is Dano Chow’s debut novel, a confessional account of one’s turning to dating apps for comfort in times of loneliness, in the hope that one casual outing after another will somehow be enough to fulfil a generational desire for intimacy.

About the Author

Dano Chow is a writer from Batu Pahat, Malaysia. His first short story ‘Sons and Daughters’ was published in Little Basket 2017: New Malaysian Writing by Fixi Novo. In 2021, his poetry collection Everything in Life Is a Fire was published by Shuren Press. In 2023, his poem ‘The world is not masculine’ was published in Issue 11 of Portside Review. His debut novel Unquiet Heart Soliloquy was published by Penguin Random House SEA in 2023. Dano has served as an editor for architectural publisher Suburbia Projects, and graphic design studio Where’s Gut. He holds an MA in Philosophy from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP).