Ghost Music
From the author of the stylish cult hit Braised Pork
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:3rd Nov '22
£14.99
Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£9.99(9781529112177)
A gorgeous Beijing-set novel of music, secrets and self-discovery
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 silent room within a timeless house, can she find the notes she needs to make sense of all the pain and beauty in her life?
Praise forBraised Pork:
'Startlingly original'Guardian
'Intensely atmospheric'LA Review of Books
'Otherworldly and deeply moving' BuzzFeed
'Real magic'LitHub
'Shimmering' Wall Street Journal
'Rich and wild'Observer
'Enchanting'Shelf Awareness
'Electric'TIME
An intriguing book that knits together music and lifeto touch on something profound * Guardian *
Vivid descriptions of contemporary Beijing ... Yu writes in clear, unadorned prose and deftly threads the magic-realist elements through the main narrative * Financial Times *
Transporting, searching and poetic * List *
This playful, often surreal novel packs in plenty ... an elusive tale, steeped in atmosphere * Mail on Sunday *
Ghost Music has beautiful prose and claustrophobic imagery that intensely evokes its protagonist's alienation * New Statesman *
Spellbinding and atmospheric . . . With its quiet, dreamy bending of reality and its precise depiction of many different strains of alienation, Ghost Music is an evocative exploration of what it means to live fully-and the potential consequences of failing to do so. Yu braids the mundane and the magical together with a gentle hand . . . There's something here of early Murakami's graceful, open-ended approach to the uncanny, as well as the vivid yet muted emotionality of Patrick Modiano or Katie Kitamura. Like these skillful portraitists of alienation, Yu conjures a visceral inbetweenness where the worlds of matter and spirit meet in a shared, suspended space -- Alexandra Kleeman * New York Times Book Review *
Startlingly original * Guardian on BRAISED PORK *
Intensely atmospheric * LA Review of Books on BRAISED PORK *
Otherwordly and deeply moving * BuzzFeed on BRAISED PORK *
Real magic * LitHub on BRAISED PORK *
Shimmering * Wall Street Journal on BRAISED PORK *
Rich and wild * Observer on BRAISED PORK *
Enchanting * Shelf Awareness on BRAISED PORK *
Electric * TIME on BRAISED PORK *
ISBN: 9781787301887
Dimensions: 224mm x 145mm x 24mm
Weight: 349g
240 pages