When Li falls ill, she plunges into the world of the Chinese afterlife, complete with ghost cities, servants, and its own bureaucracy. Madam Lim presses her case during the day, Lim Tian haunts Li's dreams from the afterlife, and she pines for another suitor altogether Lim's cousin Tian Bai. Li's father refuses the offer, but even the prospect of marriage forces her to confront the fact that she and her father are in danger of losing the comfortable middle-class life they once enjoyed. The wealthy Lim family's proposal seems to be a great stroke of luck until Li discovers that their son, Lim Tian Ching, is already dead, stricken by fever months ago. No, this is not a tale of vampires or zombies, but of an ancient custom among the Chinese in Malaysia called 'spirit marriage.' Set in 1893 colonial Malacca, the novel follows 17-year-old Li Lan, who, like other young women her age, hopes for a lucky and prosperous marriage. In her debut novel, Choo tells the unlikely story of a young Chinese woman who marries a dead man. Reminiscent of Lisa See’s Peony in Love and Amy Tan’s The Bonesetter’s Daughter, The Ghost Bride is a wondrous coming-of-age story and from a remarkable new voice in fiction. Night after night, Li Lan is drawn into the shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, where she must uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets-and the truth about her own family. Such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home for the rest of her days, but at what price? Rarely practiced, a traditional ghost marriage is used to placate a restless spirit. Instead, the wealthy Lim family urges her to become a “ghost bride” for their son, who has recently died under mysterious circumstances. Li Lan, the daughter of a respectable Chinese family in colonial Malaysia, hopes for a favorable marriage, but her father has lost his fortune, and she has few suitors.

Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride, is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Night Tiger, a Reese’s Book Club pick

The ghost bride yangsze choo summary