An Afternoon with Vivien. Notes on Books, Coffee, and Finding Your Shore

Written by Sherry

Earlier last year, I reached out to Vivien with a box of Dao Dock coffee. She is a writer based in London, and I have been following her work for a while. I did not expect much. She wrote back with something I have thought about since.

She described Dao Dock as a small resting place built into the day. A dock, she wrote, where your thoughts can come to shore, even if only for the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee. I had never heard the brand described that way. It felt more true than anything I had written about it myself.

Her book is called 《流动的生活，自己的岸》. There is no English translation yet, but the closest I can get is something like: a life in motion, finding your own shore. It is a book about navigating the kind of life that does not follow a straight line. About being a woman in a particular phase of life, in a particular time, and finding your footing anyway.

I read it on a plane to Tenerife and back, with the sound of waves underneath. By the time I landed, I had finished it and written her a long message about what it meant to me. There is a specific feeling when a book finds you at exactly the right moment. This was one of those.

Last month Vivien held a book sharing and signing event at Zao An, an East and South East Asian women-owned coffee shop in London. Around fifty people came and Dao Dock was there.

Vivien and I come from similar places. We are at similar points in our lives. We met through coffee and became friends. I am not sure what else to say about that, except that it is one of the things that makes building something feel worthwhile. The people it brings to your door.