AI, Geopolitics, and Nostalgia Inspire Fung-Penny Thriller ‘The Last Mandarin’
The novel draws on conversations about technology and geopolitics, with the authors reworking the plot after Donald Trump’s election victory.
- On Wednesday, August 5, 2026, Canadian author Louise Penny and journalist Mellissa Fung released the French translation of their political thriller, "Les Derniers Mandarins," following the English debut earlier this year.
- Growing out of conversations in London and Hong Kong about technology and power, the novel took shape before the 2024 U.S. presidential election as foreign interference dominated headlines.
- Vivien and Alice, a Chinese-American mother-daughter duo, race across continents to stop a global catastrophe fuelled by artificial intelligence and cyberattacks, while Fung noted the authors "were very careful not to make the Chinese the obvious bad guys."
- Penny argued that "evil is unspectacular and always human," portraying world leaders who "do not like each other" but "need to work together to solve a crisis."
- Penny, who previously collaborated with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on "State of Terror" in 2021, expressed enthusiasm for future projects with Fung, calling her a "great writer.
9 Articles
9 Articles
AI, geopolitics, and nostalgia inspire Fung-Penny thriller ‘The Last Mandarin’
A bestselling mystery novelist and an award-winning foreign correspondent have spent their careers documenting murder, war and human conflict. Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung both say fiction offered the best way to make sense of a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare and geopolitical tension.
The latest mandarins, the translation of Louise Penny's new novel, co-written with Mellissa Fung, is released today in bookstores.
The Toronto Star
The RecordAI, geopolitics, and nostalgia inspire Fung-Penny thriller ’‘The Last Mandarin’’
MONTREAL - A bestselling mystery novelist and an award-winning foreign correspondent have spent their careers documenting murder, war and human conflict. Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung both say fiction offered the best way to make sense of a world increasingly…
Winnipeg Free Press
AI, geopolitics, and nostalgia inspire Fung-Penny thriller ''The Last Mandarin''
MONTREAL - A bestselling mystery novelist and an award-winning foreign correspondent have spent their careers documenting murder, war and human conflict. Louise Penny and Mellissa Fung both say fiction offered the best way to make sense of a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare and geopolitical tension.
The novelist Louise Penny and journalist Mellissa Fung co-sign an international political thriller.
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