Braised Pork

An’s poignant debut tells the story of a young woman trying to find purpose in her life in the wake of disorienting personal tragedy. Shortly after Wu Jia Jia has finished breakfast with her husband, Chen Hang, in their Beijing apartment, she finds him dead in the bath, next to a picture he scrawled of a fish with a man’s head. Jia Jia knows the drawing references a cryptic dream her husband once had in Tibet and, under the image’s strange influence, she begins to dream of her occasional immersion in a dark and mysterious “world of water.” The experience reignites artistic passions of hers that Chen Hang had discouraged, and she embarks on a spiritual odyssey that will include finding a fulfilling relationship with a new lover, reconnecting with her estranged father, and, in a small Tibetan village, experiencing an epiphany that gives her a mystical sense of destiny. An draws Jia Jia with great affection and sympathy as the character grapples with the elusive meaning of her dreams and powerful emotional experiences. Readers will be moved by An’s mature meditation on the often inexplicable forces that shape the trajectory of an individual life. (Apr.)