I haven’t explored novellas much as I love delving into the atmosphere and characters in depth. But I really enjoyed reading this book ❤️
The characters keep you invested and interested throughout the book which you can finish in one sitting itself.
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The story revolves around Lindon, with a failed marriage behind him, who comes to China for a new life. The cultural displacement that he faces is beautifully described and which really resonated with me. His interactions with his colleagues, trying to understand the nuances of the culture are beautifully wrought. He then gets entangled in the problem of a ‘Nail House’ - a word I got familiar with after reading the book! It’s an actual term. Look it up guys. He meets the Li family and subsequently Zhen Li, am ambitious girl who wants more from life.
The book is intriguing, it keeps you thoroughly engrossed and there’s action, romance and drama! Do do read this peeps. You won’t regret it.

i really, really disliked this. i thought the main hero was insufferable and really didn't like the way this book otherized chinese people and customs through this western point of view.

I spent a year living in Shanghai from 2015 to 2016 and, for someone in their mid-twenties, this was the most inspiring, eye-opening, and educational year of my life. This was a year of cultural, culinary, literary, political, and historical education for me and it changed me forever. One small thing I learned about was the concept of the nail house, a fascinating phenomenon which occurs pretty regularly in modern China. Reading a book with a nail house as its central concept was immediately fascinating.

Ultimately, this story works and I found myself connecting with its Australian migrant protagonist rather a lot. He's flawed but very empathetic. The story is straightforward but affecting. The weakest area of the story is in its telling. Baines' writing is a little awkward in places, and pretentious in others. He is a solid writer of stories and characters but his prose never finds a comfortable middle for the story to flow through. It's still a very recommended read overall, however.

Set in contemporary China, The Nail House charts the adventures of an Australian project manager, Lindon, who takes up a new job on a construction site where he discovers that his task is to enforce the eviction of an elderly man from his home in a so-called “nail house”. I’d never heard this term before and I recommend doing a Google images search because the result is quite amazing. These nail houses belong to residents who refuse to leave them when a new development is planned and soon find themselves completely isolated, often with services cut off, and with construction going on all around them. Lindon is completely out of his depth in this scenario and soon finds that matters spiral out of control. The book started promisingly. I enjoyed the glimpse into business practices in the new China, the business practices of a very different culture and Lindon’s bewilderment at having to navigate a completely alien mind-set is very well portrayed. When he visits the Nail House and meets the daughter of the owner, it’s pretty obvious from the start that there’s going to be a romantic element to the book, and this too I was beginning to enjoy. Then in the second half of the book it all goes haywire, the plot twists multiply and it becomes an unlikely thriller which moves at a frenetic pace and becomes far too melodramatic. A shame, because the book really did have potential. A longer book would have given the opportunity for more character development which would have made the relationship between the two main characters more believable. As it stands, it’s all too rushed and unconvincing and I lost interest. But I’m glad to have discovered Nail Houses…..

The story is very simple. Lindon who after a failed marriage takes up a project manager job in China thinking it to be fairly simple and steady, but it isn’t as it looks like. He has to move the residents of ‘Nail House’ who have been unwilling to move from the place at any cost. Zhen is the daughter of the residents of the same ‘Nail House’ who wants more than just life. She wants to move away from this Nail House with her Fiancé, stay at a modern place and roam around the world with him. But when Lindon and Zhen’s path cross, there’s an instant something. A connection was made in between the hard times.
The characters are very simple and vulnerable. The story is oddly regular but keeps you engaged. I left it at 15% at my first attempt, but read again and I loved it. Maybe it wasn’t just the correct time at my first attempt. But one should definitely read it. It’s short and worth it!
#thenailhouse #fairlilghtmodern #netgalley

I was driving to work tonight, at about six at night. Since it is the middle of November, the sky was pitch black but the stars were still sleeping. My work is almost an hour away, on a straight drive down the same 70 mph highway every day, passing the same gas stations, the same pastures, the same corn and bean fields, the same junkyard, the same four McDonald’s, and the same beat down old restaurant that had not been a restaurant in over ten years. Besides some broken down and boarded up windows and a speed trap some time mornings. Tonight there were four pickup trucks, lined up, running with parking lights on, and I could not help but think that this was some sort of construction worker conspiracy, trying to get a land holdout to give up their property so that this can be redeveloped.

This reflects part of the plot of “The Nail House”, by Gregory Baines. The main character, Lindon, is brought into China by a corporation and his only job is to get rid of the tenants of a nail house that is holding up the progress of the corporation's developments. Lindon sees quickly that he is in over his head, but he really does not have much other option but to be successful. The owner of the nail house, the house that he needs to convince the owner to sell, is fighting for his pride more than anything. His daughter, Zhen, wants nothing more than to be done with the entire situation but her thoughts are more geared toward running away with her fiancee, Sun, than to find a solution. When she meets, Lindon, the plot becomes more convoluted with emotions and empathy instead of just fighting. This novella is interesting and light, with a well constructed plot and good characters.

While I was looking for images of the cover of this book, I found pictures of actual nail houses in China, actual people who are doing the things that make this plot more tied to real issues than just an idea that does not exist. Some of the pictures of the nail houses are crazy in their isolation, where the construction company has ripped out everything around the house and there is no way for the occupants to do anything other than survive. The thing that I could have used more in this book is the feeling of displacement by Lindon, spending a little more time focusing on his struggling to understand Chinese culture and making mistakes due to his lack of stability in this situation. Even though this was sort of thin, the entirety of the book was enjoyable. Weeks after reading it, I still see conspiracy and terror in a line of trucks parked in the middle of the night at an old abandoned restaurant. They were probably doing something like selling drugs to one another, but I like to think it was because they were getting ready to go sabotage a work site or a corporate obstruction.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An astute fictionalised look at the phenomenon of dingzihu, or nail houses, real-estate holdouts that are culturally specific to China. Across the country, which has seen unprecedented development in recent years, these houses become symbols of stubborn resistance to change. An Australian expat, Lindon, takes up a project manager job in China and is tasked with dealing with the problem of an old man who refuses to give up his house. Zhen, the old man's daughter, crosses paths with Lindon, with unsurprising results.

I found this novella a delight to read. I don’t own a house, I rent a flat but my parents own a house, the one where I was born and grew up in. If a developer wanted to pull the house down my parents would be devastated. I completely understand why the patriarch of the Yi family does not what to give up his home. I loved the title of the book and how it refers to the Yi house like it’s a rotting tooth that needs to be ripped out because it’s spoiling everything around it. I was disappointed when this engrossing book ended and wanted at least another couple of hundred pages.

‘The Nail House’ starts promisingly, with an American developer trying to encourage a Chinese family to leave their ‘nail house” - a term given to the last remaining property that refuses to sell-up and move on in an area for development.
As the high rises creep up around this last bastion of the old ways, the family patriarch digs his heels in and refuses to sell and move on. As tensions rise between the developers and the family, East meets West, Tradition meets Progress and even boy meets girl.
As I said, it starts promisingly, with the conflict forming a strong basis for the story. But then it starts to lose its way somewhat, as they throw in some distracting and unnecessary subplots, including a romance, a kidnapping, some double crossing and a large amount of explosives…
The story arc didn’t really work for me as it veered off into the incredulous. Which is a shame as I really enjoyed the first half of the book.

Well, this was a madcap adventure. I’m not entirely sure I know what I just read. This novella steps through an Orientalism nightmare, a love story, a family drama, a city chase, and a caper all in the space of a hundredsomething pages. It is quite the ride

Lindon was drunk a bit much for me, so I’m not sure the author earned the love story – but the ‘nail house’ plot and the family dynamics in it are great. And the dialogue – the dialogue was great. I would have happily spent more time learning about Lindon’s backstory and with Zhen and her parents; they were all compelling characters.

A fresh read that moves along swiftly to inject a little bit of integrity into the big, insensitive wide world.
It follows the unlikely romance beginning to take root among the crumbling backdrop of an aging apartment block, unkindly referred to as "The Nail House".

In a region steeped in tradition two sides engage on a moral battlefield, with residents steadfastly refusing to leave the building and giving a determined corporation a fierce fight. It’s a hostile affair raising a few question marks (and eyebrows!) over the future being imposed on everyone affected, even those employed to tackle the ‘rebels’.

This is a curiously charming story and in its distinctive way it unmasks what is truly important in life, ultimately proving that the heart cannot be bought and that love is worth much more than any currency.

I enjoyed this one and would consider reading this author again.

After a failed marriage back in Australia, Lindon finds himself taking a job as a project manager in China. But his dreams of an easy job with steady pay evaporates when he is asked to demolish a certain ‘Nail house’ that sits right in the middle of the construction site. Its owner is a proud man who refuses to budge, and would rather have his beloved house attached every night than move to a more secure and permanent location.

Zhen, the resident of this “Nail House’ wants nothing more than to move out with her fiancee Sun to a modern, air-conditioned flat and live a happy and contented life. When Zhen and Lindon’s paths cross in a bar in a drunken state, they know that they aren’t;t particularly fond of each other. But love has blossomed amidst war and these are just two vulnerable human souls waiting for cupid to strike.

With quotes from ‘The Art of War’ this romance, with an abundance of thrill had me engrossed for the better part. The story is fairly simple, and if you are smarter than me, predictable. But I was invested in the characters, taking this journey with them and silencing loving, hating and judging each one of them. The whole backdrop of ‘The Nail House’ and its associated attacks and problems supports this budding love story so well.

Lindon is a man hopelessly in love with a girl he can’t have and Zhen wants more from life than what Sun has to offer. Lindon’s simplicity and honestly will definitely win hearts. Whereas Zhen is daring and dreams on and has her life planned out for her.

‘The Nail House’ is thrilling, engaging and at times, adorable. It’s a book that can very well be finished in one sitting, so please pick it up because this romance will keep you invested.

This story started out very well for me. I was immediately intrigued by Lindon’s experiences in China - unfamiliar territory in terms of working practices and culture. It is a steep learning curve for him, trying to understand his colleagues’ sometimes impenetrable behaviour, slowly beginning to suspect people had their own motives and agendas, and struggling to maintain his own impartiality and professionalism. I enjoyed the character of Zhen too, trapped between her own desires and her family’s needs and expectations of her.

Of course, the ‘nail house’ situation has to be resolved one way or another. I was expecting that but, after the gentle thoughtfulness of the first half of the book, what I wasn’t expecting was the frenetic, thriller movie action leading up to the climactic ending. I was rather taken aback and the sudden change of pace didn’t sit well with me, nor was I sure what on earth happened to some of the characters at the end. A patchy experience, but ‘when it was good, it was very, very good…’.

I'd never heard the term Nail House before starting this and naively thought this might have something to do with the house being covered in nails or something like that; it is however a Chinese term for a house which blocks development, go to google images for some fascinating images. The Yi family own one of these houses, one by one their neighbours have given in and sold their properties and land to make way for a new block of apartments. Lindon is an Australian project manager trying to use his recent post in China as an escape from this recent divorce. I feel like the plot was good but really needed to have been dragged out and the characters explored in more depth as there were some good plot twists that took me by surprise but it all felt a little bit rushed. Fairlight Moderns are set around the globe and for this novella is shaped by culture rather than just geography; when we meet her Zhen Yi is preparing for her upcoming marriage and its the attitudes and expectations of her, her fiance and her family which really shape how the story progresses.

Almost five years ago, I bought a house for myself. I painted. I bought appliances and furniture. I planted a back garden. I have plans to makeover some of the rooms in the future. All of this is to make this house even more of a home for myself. There are few places I feel more comfortable and relaxed, to be honest. I’m so proud of myself for working hard and saving enough money to get this place. So I can understand why the patriarch of the Yi family does not want to leave his home, in spite of the offers from a development company that has bought up the properties around the family home and is in the process of building a high rise apartment complex. In The Nail House, by Gregory Baines, we see the battle for a small plot of land in an unnamed Chinese city from the perspective of Zhen Yi and Lindon, an Australian man who has been hired to negotiate that last land acquisition.

A nail house is the Chinese term for a real estate holdout. The name comes from the way that that these houses stick up like nails that need to be banged down. By the time that the novella opens, things have escalated to the point where Zhen’s father is under siege and the family is starting to crack under the strain. Zhen is relieved to get out, as she is moving in with her fiancé in a few days. The quotes from The Art of War at the beginning of each chapter heighten the imagery. Lindon, who has come to China to get away from his acrimonious divorce and to get a big pay out, is not prepared for what he has been hired to do. Nor is he prepared for the sheer amount of alcohol it takes to do big business in China.

Zhen and Lindon are thrown together through a series of coincidental meetings. Lindon is so out of his depth that Zhen takes a grudging pity on the hapless foreigner, who is drunk to the point of vomiting in the streets far too often. While the two keep bumping into each other, Lindon tries to work out his feelings and Zhen struggles with the path her life is taking. Zhen’s life is following an expected path towards marriage, a better apartment, and stability. Because this is a novella, all of this happens at a breakneck pace. We start with a modern-day siege, drift into sort of a romance, before ending up with an explosive, surprising conclusion.

I think it only took me a couple of hours to read The Nail House. Sadly, this wasn’t quite enough for me. I wanted more of Lindon’s maturation as a person. I definitely wanted more of Zhen’s more complicated journey and the battles over the Yi’s nail house. That said, I found The Nail House very satisfying. I will absolutely recommend this to readers looking for a quick read with plenty of psychological depth.

It took me a while to get into this book as the atmosphere at the beginning is quite sombre and a little depressing. This eventually contributes to the sinister nature of the plot and reflects the inner state of the two main characters, Lindon and Zhen.
However, the book felt a little unfinished to me. The plot seemed a little easy in places with things just conveniently falling into place. I would have liked the characters to be a little more developed too, we only really get to see them in the present but I feel like their pasts really influence them and that the book could have easily been really moving if it had delved into their pasts a little more. It’s quite a short read, perhaps if it were longer it could have expanded on these points.

I’m giving ‘The Nail House’ 3 stars because I enjoyed parts of it but felt that overall it missed the mark slightly.

A nice little book I enjoyed. I like learning about different things when I'm reading and I definitely learned some things about China in this one.
I liked the writing and the story, recommended.

A book of family of roots of home.Lindon is brought from Australia to China,by a developer He is brought there to convince this family primarily the stubborn father whose family roots are here.to sell his house the NailHouse the final home blocking the development of this new area. Lindon and the family share their emotions hardship of selling and the surprise involvement of Lindon & the people he was sent to help move,particularly the surprise of love.#netgalley#fairlightbooks

A young, recently divorced Australian takes a high-paying job in China with one assignment: convince an old man, the last home owner in the path of a planned high-rise, to sell his house. Lindon knows no Chinese and seems ignorant of Chinese business practices, but he gives it his best shot, and in the meantime he meets the man's soon-to-be-married daughter and falls in love with her. Complications definitely ensue.

I did wonder if it's likely Lindon would have been hired for such a job, but his white face may have been a factor. The story itself is interesting and enjoyable, but with an ending that also seemed unlikely. However, my own familiarity with Chinese ways and with the current situation on the ground there is limited, so who's to say? I can say the novella was enjoyable and stayed with me, and that's a positive result for fiction.

An interesting read, and I felt I learned something about China in the process, but still not sure if I liked this book or not.