A widow with a fish to fry
A YOUNG WOMAN WALKS INTO THE BATHROOM of her luxurious Beijing apartment with a scarf hugging each shoulder. She plans to ask her husband which he’d prefer she bring on their upcoming vacation, but notices he’s facedown in their bathtub. Jokingly, she asks him if he’s trying to wash his hair. No answer. She quickly realizes he’s not moving and takes his pulse—but he doesn’t have one. He’s dead.
These first pages of An Yu’s eerie debut novel, sound like the beginning of a domestic thriller. There’s the dead husband. A fancy apartment. And a wife who reveals that even though she’s shocked by the unexpected death,
