Yu-An Hsu Boeken

A gorgeous novel of music, secrets and self-discovery from the brilliant young author of Braised Pork For three years, Song Yan has filled the emptiness of her Beijing apartment with the tentative notes of her young piano students. With her marriage, she gave up on her own career as a concert pianist, but her husband Bowen has long rebuffed her desire to have a child. Instead, she must accommodate her mother-in-law, newly arrived from the province of Yunnan and bringing with her long-buried family secrets. Soon strange parcels start to show up on the doorstep and Song Yan's dreams become troubling and claustrophobic. Striking out alone through the winter city, she finds herself pulled into the ancient hutongs to confront the source of her unease. In a still, silent room in a timeless house, can she find the notes she needs to make sense of all the pain and beauty in her life? Evocative, magical and endlessly surprising, Ghost Music is a captivating journey through memory, expression and self-discovery towards the shimmer of new beginnings.

Contemporary Beijing comes alive in the hands of a young literary star 'An Yu writes beautifully about loneliness, the experience of isolation, and the possibility of human connection, however fragile. Braised Pork is mesmerising' -- Rosie Price, author of What Red Was One autumn morning in Beijing, just after breakfast, Jia Jia's life changes for ever. After the sudden loss of her husband, the young artist sets out on a journey from a hidden jazz and whiskey bar, via a strange and dreamlike world of water, to the high plains of Tibet. Along the way, she crosses paths with people experiencing losses of their own, including someone who may be able to offer her the love she had long thought impossible. Cinematic and delicately beautiful, Braised Pork is an exploration of myth-making, connection, a world beyond words, and of a young woman's search deep into her past, in order to arrive at her future. **A STYLIST BEST BOOK OF 2020**