In Five Poems Lake, a small village surrounded by impenetrable deserts, the sun is slowly disappearing overhead. A young woman keeps one apprehensive eye on the sky above as she tends the pharmacy of traditional medicine that belonged to her great grandfather. She has few customers, and even fewer visitors: her older sister Dong Ji, her last living relative, works at a wellness parlor across town for those who can afford it—which, during these strange and difficult days, is not many.
Five Poems Lake had fallen on hard times long before the sun began shrinking, but now, every few days, a new sliver disappears. As the temperature drops and the lake freezes over, the population of the town realizes that they will soon die—if not of the cold and starvation, then of despair. When the Beacons begin to appear—ordinary people with heads replaced by searing, blinding light, like miniature suns—the town’s residents wonder if they may hold the answer to their salvation, or if they are just another sign of impending ruin. A photograph belonging to their father, who died mysteriously twelve years ago, may offer a clue in the mystery of the Beacons, and Dong Ji and her sister wonder if they may finally learn what happened to their father.
With a richly surreal sensibility that has earned comparisons to the work of Haruki Murakami, and anchored by searching curiosity and wisdom, in Sunbirth An Yu honors the unique relationship held between sisters and asks how much we can ever know about the deepest mysteries of the world.
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
Named a Best Book of the Year by TIME and Washington Independent Review of Books
A New York Times Book Review Paperback Row Selection
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 . . . 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.”—Alexandra Kleeman, New York Times Book Review
“An intriguing book that knits together music and life to touch on something profound.”—Claire Kohda, Guardian
“A novel haunted in every way—psychologically, philosophically, and literally. This intricate, eerie book leaves the reader with more questions than answers, the kind of uncanny questions that reverberate in your mind with a tinny echo of reality . . . Ghost Music shows us how we might find the trigger that wakes us up, forces us to confront our demons, and helps us heal.”—Washington Independent Review of Books
“Talking mushrooms, classical music, and the complexities of identity infuse a semisurreal novel that contrasts the immediacy of daily life in Beijing with a mesmerizing dreamscape . . . Simply told yet enigmatic . . . Dreamy and questioning, an unsettling novel composed of wistful notes.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Replete with dreamlike sequences, enclosed walls, and talking mushroom . . . Those who enjoyed Yu’s previous work or surrealistic fiction like Hiroko Oyamada’s The Hole will likely welcome her latest offering.”—Library Journal
“Ethereal . . . Beautifully metaphoric and insightful . . . Yu’s lyrical language and atmospheric descriptions bring out the contrast between Song Yan’s oppressive, superficial reality and the hypnotic world where she converses with fungi.”—BookPage
“This novel of grief, survival, and artistic ambitions captures the uncanny despair of loneliness and the liberating effort of beginning a new life.”—Isle McElroy, Vulture
“A melancholic, mysterious exploration of a young Beijing pianist grappling with family secrets, a distant husband and the meaning of music and expression . . . [Song Yan] remains an intriguing hero in her restrained, calm acceptance of her lot.”—Observer (UK)
“Beautiful prose and claustrophobic imagery . . . intensely evokes its protagonist’s alienation.”—New Statesman (UK)
“Yu mesmerizes with this surreal story of music and mushrooms . . . As Song Yan relentlessly surges toward independence and away from solitude and loneliness, Yu’s blistering narrative reaches a plaintive end. Readers will be enthralled.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An atmospheric study in disconnected relationships . . . Yu delivers another intimate, intricate performance.”—Booklist
“Juxtaposing unreal imagery and distinctive prose with very human characters, Ghost Music is a novel about learning to cope with lost dreams and missed opportunities.”—Foreword Reviews
“Often stunning . . . Mixes the real and the surreal, blurring dreamworlds and the everyday . . . Transporting, searching, and poetic, Yu’s weird, mutated storytelling wonderfully marries mundane and deep existential dilemmas.”—The List (UK)
“An Yu’s lush, delicate novel Ghost Music unfolds like Claude Debussy’s atmospheric piece for solo piano Rêverie, lulling the reader into protagonist Song Yan’s surrealistic daydream of a life. As the former pianist and young wife confronts the stark reality of her marriage with suppressed but deeply felt emotions, she begins to test the limits of her freedom and finds that like the mysterious mushrooms that appear in the mail and in her dreams, she, too, may thrive in darkness.”—Chris Cander, USA Today-bestselling author of The Weight of a Piano
“Enthralling and elegant, Ghost Music conjures a world I have never seen before: dreamlike, mysterious, suspenseful in the secrets it reveals, while always being grounded in the sensory. The narrator’s wise sensibility drew me in, but I stayed for the sentences—each one more astonishing than the next, they revealed an extraordinary depth of feeling. Like a Ryuichi Sakamoto composition, this novel casts a haunting spell.”—Sanaë Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair
“Dreamlike and diurnal, haunted and lucid, ambivalent and hopeful, An Yu’s Ghost Music pulses with profound mystery. A disquieting, mesmerizing novel.”—Sara Freeman, author of Tides
“To read Ghost Music’s spare prose is to discover its cogency. Yu allows our quiet manias to grow apace with her staggering imagination. An Yu’s second novel affirms her as one of our most important writers.”—Zain Khalid, author of Brother Alive
An Independent Literary Publisher Since 1917
