The Cook, the Crook, and the Real Estate Tycoon

This intricate, dark-hearted crime tale from bestselling Chinese novelist Zhenyun (I Did Not Kill My Husband) won the 2011 Mao Dun Literature Prize and has now been translated into English. Forty-two-year-old Liu Yuejin is a construction-site cook in Beijing with a drinking problem. Liu has custody of his spoiled high school–age son, Pengjiu, after divorcing his wife, Huang Xiaoqing, whom he caught in an adulterous affair with the whiskey distiller Li Gengsheng. Liu agreed to leave the couple alone if Li signed an IOU paying Liu 60,000 Yuan at the end of six years. However, the IOU is stolen from Liu, and he launches his desperate search for the thief to recover it. Of course, the IOU’s thief, Yang Zhi, is dealing with his own problems when several thugs rip him off. To accentuate the story’s noir dynamics, the author adds in the billionaire real estate tycoon Yan Ge, who is hemorrhaging money. Yan’s blackmail scheme to raise funds goes awry when his USB drive, which is filled with incriminating videos, is also pilfered. The web of deceptions, double crosses, and betrayals Zhenyun builds into his ambitious, complex novel result in a rich depiction of the criminal underworld. (Aug.)