Braised Pork

Written by An Yu

Narrated by Vera Chok

One autumn morning, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her lavish Beijing apartment to find her husband dead.
One minute she was breakfasting with him and packing for an upcoming trip, the next, she finds him motionless in
their half-full bathtub. Like something out of a dream, next to the tub Jia Jia discovers a pencil sketch of a strange
watery figure, an image that swims into Jia Jia’s mind and won’t leave.

The mysterious drawing launches Jia Jia on an odyssey across contemporary Beijing, from its high-rise apartments
to its hidden bars, as she encounters some of the people who call the city home, including a jaded bartender whose
caring support turns to a romantic interest. Unencumbered by a marriage that had constrained her, Jia Jia travels into
her past to try to discover things that were left unsaid by the people closest to her. Her journey takes her to the high
plains of Tibet, and even to a shadowy, watery otherworld, a place she both yearns and fears to go.

Exquisitely attuned to the complexities of human connection, and an atmospheric and cinematic evocation of
middle-class urban China, An Yu’s Braised Pork explores the intimate strangeness of grief, the indelible mysteries of
unseen worlds, and the energizing self-discovery of a newly empowered young woman.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Apr 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781980080961

Reviews for Braised Pork

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this otherworldly tale, Jia Jia is a modern Beijing woman whose husband dies under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind no clue other than a picture of a "fish-man" figure. Jia Jia's attempts to uncover the significance of this image leads her to some unexpected places, including a remote village in Tibet. This short novel starts out strong as a story about a woman liberated from the shackles of a loveless marriage, and ends up rather implausibly like folklore. I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

[modioperandi · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to NetGalley and Edelweiss for my ARC.A debut novel with a gripping name paired with beautiful artwork. Totally sold on the superficial notes which are in fact in this readers opinion not superficial. I come to many of my first reads like this art work title and synopsis. Braised Pork. I mean if that does not make you at least want to pick it up you have no literary soul. BRAISED PORK. Awesome title. In short because the book is better read and experienced that given a synopsis which the publisher has done with great intrigue. The main protagonist Jia Jia lives in Beijing and comes come to her apartment to find that her husband, Chen Hang, who moments before was living is now dead. Dead in a bathtub. Dead in a bathtub with an unfolding piece of paper ((que the scene from No Country for Old men with that little wrapper unfolding "you stand to win it all")) on the paper is something that will set Jia Jia off on a journey. As nearly all novel journeys go Jia Jia will have to have adventures and meditate on her past to get anywhere at all. The sense of adventure in the story is heightened and altered by a deft use of magical realism where strange things are not explained. Is it real? Is what is happening not real? Who knows?! and who cares because that is the effect - ite beautiful and creepy and unsettling. In moves Murakamiesqe and harkening to the feelings the films by Guillermo del Toro bring to mind An Yu has written a debut that is profound and a joy to read because the story is engrossing and the writing is just so good. The unexplained allusions to water in dreams in descriptions in setting are just so good and baffling but that makes it good. In that way the work is cinematic and gave this reader pause to reflect and think about what they heck An Yu means. This in turn heightens the joy of reading it to flip back a section and reread things to get a better grip of the oblique thing being said. Braised pork is searching and a story about a woman finding herself in an adventure tale spanning Beijing and Tibet and its just beautiful. In turns of phrase both mysterious and poetic An Yu has burst forth in a compelling mysteriously weird magic-realist drama-thriller. Get it.

[boredgames · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Just awful Orientalist tosh that plays into Western perceptions of Asian restrain- eye-rolling similes like "her skin was like white jade" and unoriginal detours into Murakami-esque surrealism combine to make this an utterly unsatisfying read. That it's even a lead debut baffles me

[theelliemo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A delightful book, beautifully written. On the face of it, it seems like an easy read, but there are many layers to this book; every reader will have their own interpretation of what the world of water and the tulips represent.