Nights are sleepless in China—not because one happens to be facing the legendary Bay of Thieves, but because a blend of Eastern disorientation and stubborn jet lag batters sleep the way the waves batter the bay
(1) The Fisher Girl statue is the most iconic symbol of the city of Zhuhai. The sculpture depicts a young woman raising a shining pearl toward the sky with both hands.
During those wakeful hours, two very different books, both highly recommendable, have helped shake off my drowsiness.
Artificial Intelligence (Rethinking Business Strategy) (April 2025), by Teresa Martín-Retortillo, is exactly what its title promises: a book about the much-discussed AI. Although the subject might at first seem off-putting—after all, no one wants the same soup every day—it never feels that way.
On the contrary, the book flows, as books do when they say exactly what they set out to say. At the same time, Teresa seeks to tame this beast of the future—the ever-present AI—by asking the right questions, so that the waves of change and uncertainty unleashed by this unprecedented technological revolution catch us prepared rather than off guard, allowing our businesses not merely to endure, but to thrive.
Teresa’s aim is to create memories of the future by imagining a series of possible scenarios: a broad safety net of what might be, though it has not yet come to pass, making our eventual encounter with the future a little less daunting.
Instead of waving a crystal ball, Teresa raises the banner of preparedness. And who would not want to be prepared in an age when some are beginning to lose faith in the human being as we have always known it? As she puts it so succinctly: “Foresight isn’t about prediction; it’s about preparation.”
(2) Partial view of the The Bay of thieves (Whanshan archipelago)
(3) Zhuhai Opera House. Inspired by the shape of two giant seashells, the Zhuhai Opera House has become one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks. In this photograph, only a small glimpse of the shells’ curved valves can be seen on the horizon.
Auroa’s Legacy (El legado de Auroa, May 2025), by Macarena Martín, opens by invoking the very abyss of certainty itself. Its opening lines read:
“I have never believed in miracles, but when reality bends beneath your feet and a wormhole opens like a wound in time, it is hard not to wonder whether science and faith are, in the end, simply two different names for the same abyss.”
From there unfolds a gripping work of science fiction in which, comme il faut, no time machine could possibly be missing—nor the deliberately induced insomnia that its protagonist describes:
“I have never slept well,” she says, “since the day a man blew his brains out five metres from me and splattered my memories forever.”
(4) China on the Move
(5) The Zhuhai lighthouse
____________________________________________