Emma Pei Yin, WHEN SLEEPING WOMEN WAKE: A Novel

Totally Booked with Zibby

Zibby Owens

Connection, Inspiration, Moms, Entertainment, Arts, Reading, Books, Parenting, Literary

4.4 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Debut author Emma Pei Yin chats with Zibby about her remarkable and harrowing new novel, WHEN SLEEPING WOMEN WAKE. Set in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong during WWII, the book follows the gripping journey of a mother, daughter, and maid as they struggle to reunite after being torn apart by the war. Emma shares the personal family history that inspired the novel, including stories from her grandfather, a long estrangement from her grandmother, and her own journey toward reconnection and healing. She also shares her path to writing, the challenges of moving to Australia alone at 19, and how her desire to honor silenced female voices shaped her storytelling.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive
0:24.0	look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't
0:29.3	have to.
0:30.3	Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day.
0:36.2	For more information, go to zibbimedia.com and follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens.
0:44.5	Emma Pei is the author of When Sleeping Women Wake, a novel.
0:49.2	Emma is a UK-born and raised Hong Kong Chinese writer.
0:52.2	She writes for publications including Mekong Review,
0:55.0	being Asian Australian, Her Canberra, Annie Co Press, Hong Kong Review, and books and publishing
1:00.6	Australia. She resides in Australia with her partner and their extremely barky, dachshund lady.
1:06.9	When Sweeping Women Wake is her first novel. Welcome, Emma. Thank you so much for coming on Totally Booked
1:12.6	with Zibby to talk about when sleeping women wake. Congrats. Thank you. Yay. Okay, tell listeners,
1:20.5	please what your book is about. So my book is a historical fiction novel. It's set in Japanese
1:25.8	occupied Hong Kong during World War II. So it spans
1:29.0	three years, eight months, and it follows the story of three remarkable women. We have a mother,
1:35.6	her daughter, and they're made. And when the Japanese invade, they're basically torn apart,
1:41.3	and the rest of the book is just kind of them trying to find their way back to one
1:45.3	another. Oh my gosh. And you start way back in the early 1900s and you take us all the way through.
1:51.8	How did you come up with the idea for this? And I know you did so much research. So tell me a little
1:57.7	bit about the inspiration and then how you accomplish this beat.
2:03.6	Okay, so it was inspired by family stories.
2:06.9	So growing up, I was born and raised in the UK, but, you know,
	...

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