I Did Not Kill My Husband

Zhenyun's (Cell Phone) latest novel, an overseas bestseller, is a satirical tale that nimbly examines political corruption in China. When Li Xuelian, married to Qin Yuhe, becomes pregnant with their second child, she finds a curious way to circumnavigate the government's one-child policy. She divorces, has the baby, and then seeks Yuhe out to remarry him; unfortunately, he has found another wife. Furious, she wants to declare the separation a sham so that she can divorce him properly. She seeks redress from local politicians, who spurn her to protect their cushy government jobs. Whether the divorce is real or not, Zhenyun depicts truth as a slippery thing; when Xuelian enters Beijing to protest, she notices the geography of Tiananmen Square is not how it was described to her in school (a nod to the fact she would not have learned about its political significance there, either). Perhaps mindful of such governmental interventions regarding politically inexpedient truths, Zhenyun does not lecture, but instead playfully examines the eccentricities of characters caught up in a farcical web of bribery and shady dealings; his larger meaning is unmistakable. (Sept.)