Chinese Spring — Christopher New

In China, have things really changed for the post-Tiananmen generation?

Hong Kong, 2012. Dimitri Johnson discovers that he is a dead man walking. Stunned by his doctor's prognosis, he nevertheless makes his ritual annual pilgrimage to the candlelight vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. But this year, he thinks, may be his last. So little time remains.

Over on the mainland, Dimitri's best friend, a Chinese academic, is arrested for protesting against an official land grab in his ancestral village. So begins the ultimate struggle of Dimitri's life as he battles against an insidious cancer and fights to help his persecuted colleague.

Set against the backdrop of the burgeoning protest movement that led to Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution, this moving saga shines a searchlight into the darker corners of modern China.