Ghost Month by Ed Lin (English) Paperback Book

Description: Ghost Month by Ed Lin Welcome to Unknown Pleasures, a food stand in Taipeis night market named after a Joy Division album, and also the location for a new mystery set in the often undocumented Taiwan. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description August is Ghost Month in Taiwan. Its a time to commemorate the dead and visit shrines. Jing-nan, a young man who runs a food stand in a Taipei night market, doesnt consider himself suspicious. But when he learns that his ex-girlfriend Julia has been murdered, he cant help but be spooked. She was found scantily clad and shot on the side of the road, where shed been selling betel nuts to truck drivers. Jing-nan is confused - betel nut beauties are usually women in desperate circumstances, but Julia had done well at school and was living in NYC, why was she here? Author Biography Ed Lin is a journalist by training and an all-around stand-up kinda guy. Hes the author of several books: Waylaid, his literary debut, and his Robert Chow crime series, set in 1970s Manhattan Chinatown: This Is a Bust, Snakes Cant Run, and One Red Bastard. Lin, who is of Taiwanese and Chinese descent, is the first author to win three Asian American Literary Awards. Lin lives in New York with his wife, actress Cindy Cheung. Review Praise for Ghost MonthA LibraryJournal Best Book of 2014BookRiot 100 Must-Read Novels of Noir"A sidewalk noodle shop in Taipeis Shilin Night Market during summers Ghost Month is the vivid backdrop for Ed Lins Ghost Month . . . The plot twists come fast and furious as the story reaches its climax. Come for the exotic food and fascinating setting; stay for the characters."—The Boston Globe"A unique blend of tension, charm, tragedy and optimism, with characters youll love, and a setting so real youll think youve been there. Highly recommended."—Lee Child"As in the crime novels of one of his literary mentors, Raymond Chandler, Lins prose is frequently image-laden. Ghost Month is also an excellent introduction to Taipeis food culture—readers are likely to head to the nearest noodle shop after theyve finished the book."—South China Morning Post"Covers Taiwans complicated political identity and relationship with mainland China, all during one of the most remarkable times of the year: ghost month."—To the Best of Our Knowledge "Lin vividly describes the open-air night market where Jing-nan works. He also explains the knotty relationship between business, cops and gangsters without passing judgment."—San Antonio Express-News"It wouldnt be an Ed Lin book if there werent also humor in the story. Lin uses descriptions of Jing-nans funny and endearing relationships with his two food stall employees, Dwayne and Frankie, and his encounters with eccentric Shilin Market workers to balance Jing-nans sad and lonely search for who Julia was . . . a book with a great sense of place, a good story, interesting characters, and a tender heart."—Murder By The Book, Starred Review"This is pure and perfect suspense and a book that is almost impossible to put down. If it doesnt win a few awards well be surprised."—Crimespree Magazine"Hold on for a breathtaking, multi-cultural ride. With some good luck and a few well-placed joss sticks, you just might survive."—Martin Limón, author of Nightmare Range"I would imagine most readers, like me, are not that familiar with Taiwan but Ed Lin will rectify that situation . . . As an armchair traveler I found this a fascinating journey."—Register-Pajaronian"Taiwans traditions play a major role in Lins category-defying thriller that manages to be both funny and profound. Lin writes with strong literary overtones and delivers a bang-up finale sure to keep readers engaged well past lights out."—Library Journal, Starred Review"For a guy who scoffs at the ghosts revered by so many of his fellow Taiwanese, droll everyman Jing-nan, a night-market food stall manager, ironically finds himself spending much of his time chasing one as he investigates the murder of his childhood sweetheart, Julia Huang, in this darkly comic thriller from Lin."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review"Offers full-sensory descriptions of Taipeis night market that are perfect for armchair travelers, especially if they like their vacations spiced up with odd companions and exotic Mob violence."—Booklist"The teeming Taipei setting and the tormented hero combine to create a furious energy that transcends a whodunit plot."—Kirkus Reviews"A rich and fascinating account of an unfamiliar world."—Reviewing the Evidence"Depicts the prevailing culture of this vibrant international city, and hones in on key elements of social behavior, language and mores. Ghost Month is superbly written and provides plenty of conversational fodder making it an ideal selection for book clubs."—BookBrowse"Hopefully this unique protagonist will reappear in a sequel further exploring the exuberant setting of the night market of Taipei."—Stop, Youre Killing MePraise for Ed Lin"Lin is an astonishing talent."—Junot Díaz"Lins unsentimental, purely realist--not naturalist, not socialist, not postmodernist—novel raises hopes that American fiction may yet grow up."—Booklist (Starred Review for Waylaid)"Ed Lin is a new writer, but he has the eye and wit of a pro. Waylaid will make you laugh and cringe."—Playboy (for Waylaid)"Paints a convincing picture of Manhattans Chinatown. Readers interested in the integration of Asian-Americans into American society, as well as those who like gritty procedurals, will be well rewarded."—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review for Snakes Cant Run) Review Quote Praise for Ghost Month A LibraryJournal Best Book of 2014 BookRiot 100 Must-Read Novels of Noir "A sidewalk noodle shop in Taipeis Shilin Night Market during summers Ghost Month is the vivid backdrop for Ed Lins Ghost Month . . . The plot twists come fast and furious as the story reaches its climax. Come for the exotic food and fascinating setting; stay for the characters." --The Boston Globe "A unique blend of tension, charm, tragedy and optimism, with characters youll love, and a setting so real youll think youve been there. Highly recommended." --Lee Child "As in the crime novels of one of his literary mentors, Raymond Chandler, Lins prose is frequently image-laden. Ghost Month is also an excellent introduction to Taipeis food culture--readers are likely to head to the nearest noodle shop after theyve finished the book." --South China Morning Post "Covers Taiwans complicated political identity and relationship with mainland China, all during one of the most remarkable times of the year: ghost month." -- To the Best of Our Knowledge "Lin vividly describes the open-air night market where Jing-nan works. He also explains the knotty relationship between business, cops and gangsters without passing judgment." --San Antonio Express-News "It wouldnt be an Ed Lin book if there werent also humor in the story. Lin uses descriptions of Jing-nans funny and endearing relationships with his two food stall employees, Dwayne and Frankie, and his encounters with eccentric Shilin Market workers to balance Jing-nans sad and lonely search for who Julia was . . . a book with a great sense of place, a good story, interesting characters, and a tender heart." --Murder By The Book, Starred Review "This is pure and perfect suspense and a book that is almost impossible to put down. If it doesnt win a few awards well be surprised." --Crimespree Magazine "Hold on for a breathtaking, multi-cultural ride. With some good luck and a few well-placed joss sticks, you just might survive." --Martin Lim Excerpt from Book Chapter One When I found out the girl I was going to marry had been murdered, I was sitting on a foldout stool at a sidewalk noodle shop in Taipeis Daan District. My mouth went dry, my eyes blurred and I couldnt stop shaking. It was the hottest day in July, and the islands humidity was draped over me like a mourning veil, yet my body went cold and sweaty. Even my skin was crying. I was somehow able to hold the newspaper still in my hands while reading and rereading the entire story of Julia Huang. It was only three paragraphs long. She had been shot in the head. She hadnt been wearing much. She had been working at an unlicensed betel-nut stand in Hsinchu City, an hour outside of Taipei. The surveillance camera--Taiwans top crime-fighting tool--had malfunctioned, and no footage of the crime had been recorded. I sighed and slumped over. I wished it hadnt been my Julia. I wished it had been almost anybody else. I thought about some of our old classmates I didnt care for. Why not one of them? But it was definitely my Julia. I touched the three Chinese characters of her name as I read them. Her name, Huang Zheng-lian, meant "positive light." Everything she did Id always seen in a positive light. I hadnt seen her in seven years, when I had left for UCLA and she for NYU. I hadnt even known she was here in Taipei. The two of us had grown up together, Jing-nan and Zhenglian, who became Johnny and Julia, two Taiwanese sweethearts with the same American dream. Our families had been friends for at least three generations, so it had been predestined that we would be close. As soon as Julia and I could talk, we talked to each other. We went to the same school and the same cheap cram schools and worked at our respective family night-market stalls, which changed locations over the years but were always near each other. We did everything together. Everything . We knew we were in love by third grade. We knew we were going to get married by the fifth. Next door to the noodle shop where I sat with my paper, in a store that sold altars, gods and goods for the next world, a man set up burning incense sticks at the feet of several deities. He brought a folding table out to the sidewalk, and I watched him set up offerings for human spirits: a three-layer pyramid of oranges, a bulk pack of instant noodles, a six-pack of Coca-Cola, a six-pack of Sprite and boxes of cookies and crackers. He slid a plastic bucket of water and a small towel underneath the table, so the ghosts could wash up before and after eating. He lit up incense for the table and sneezed hard twice. Finally, he touched his lighter to a sheaf of paper and dropped it in a metal bucket to the right of the table. Black smoke from the burning money for the dead snaked toward me. A motorcycle-repair shop on the north side of the noodle shop simultaneously set up its offerings table. Judging by the outsized table and offerings, the owner was either less lucky or more fearful than the guy who ran the gods store. Incense smoke as thick as a movie special effect streamed out of a censer on his table. The makeshift offering tables were meant to appease not only the spirits of ones ancestors, but also those of people who died with no heirs. Supposedly if no one was around to pray for you and offer money and food throughout the year, you really suffered in the afterlife. You might be pierced with hooks, hung upside down and set on fire, depending on what your specific beliefs were. After eleven months of pain and hunger, these ghosts were looking to take out their wrath upon anybody alive. I looked over at the gods next door and choked on the spiced air. This morning, each of the seven twenty-four-hour news channels had been going off on the betel-nut girl who was shot and killed, replaying computer-animated reenactments of the crime. If the surveillance-camera footage had been available, that would have been played in endless loops, too. I had watched the cartoon shooting with indifference, numbed to the over-the-top violence, sex and sexual violence the news channels served up to compete for eyeballs. The woman in the animated reenactment looked more like a strung-out Marge Simpson than Julia. One version featured the gunman killing the woman and then spitting betel-nut juice on her face as a final act of indecency. The girls who work at betel-nut stalls are usually in tough circumstances. It pays well and doesnt require a college degree. You just have to be willing to wear next to nothing and to let the occasional big tipper conduct your breast exam. How many disgusting men with ugly, red-stained teeth drove up to the stand and tried to grab you when you handed them their betel-nut chew, Julia? Did you fight back? Is that why he shot you? Betel nut, or binlang , is a stimulant grubby Taiwanese men cant get enough of. Binlang is utterly unacceptable in most social settings--even in easygoing Taipei--because users constantly spit out the bloody juice as it collects in the mouth, staining the teeth and gums. If you want to chew binlang , you have to not care what you look like. There are many benefits to chewing binlang, though. Its better than coffee at keeping drivers alert, which is why its so often associated with taxi, bus and truck drivers. It has a flavor that outlasts any gum, and it tops cigarettes in terms of effectively delivering mouth cancer to its users. Best of all are the barely legal, barely dressed women who work at the betel-nut stands, the "betel-nut beauties," or binlang xishi . Community standards and furious wives have kept betel-nut stands outside the city limits, relegating them to highways and off- and on-ramps. At night drivers will see stretches of young women in swimsuits and lingerie in their glass-enclosed stands. Visitors to Taiwan think all the women are prostitutes. As I understand it, only the less reputable stands are fronts for hookers, who also sell illegal drugs. Nonetheless, religious and political leaders have often called for regulation in the industry. A Christian coalition called upon the women to completely cover the three Bs: breasts, butts and bellies. But then the tips wouldnt be as good. Anyway, some of the privileged young women at Taipeis throbbing nightclubs werent dressed that differently from socially and educationally disadvantaged betel-nut beauties. Are the binlang xishi exploited or are they empowered? Maybe a combination of the two? Its hard to say. Many of the women who work at the stands are from broken and poor families. Some stands employ aboriginal girls for a touch of the exotic. The income they earn is on the high side, but they are typically supporting an entire household. One thing is quite clear, though. There is money in it, and the binlang stands have a steady inflow from lonely betel-nut addicts. Drugs, tits and asses are recession-proof, and even the most forlorn binlang outposts are always hiring. I didnt chew binlang , I didnt go to the stands and I hadnt cared about the undeniably seedy world that they operated in. How could Julia, the valedictorian of our high school and the love of my life, have ended up working as a betel-nut girl? What the hell had happened? The newspaper article was thin on details of Julias murder and ended with a call to shut down unlicensed betel-nut stands. I checked my phone to see if the story had been updated, but there was nothing new. I dropped my phone in my shirt pocket and rubbed my thighs. A truck going by hit a pothole, and the vibration caused some of my soup to dribble over the side of the plastic bowl. I had eaten exactly one bite before I saw Julias name. The woman who ran the noodle shop came out from behind the counter, and we regarded each other. She was maybe sixty-five years old and had once been the young bride of a retired soldier from the mainland, who started this beef-noodle-soup stand. Her face was still smooth but had some spots that were only getting darker. She wore Buddhist counting beads and a Taoist pendant around her neck, which had three long and deep scoops taken out of the flesh. She noticed my puffy eyelids and tear-stained face. "Ah," she said. "I told you spicy was too spicy for you! And you said you could handle it because you sell spicy food at the Shilin Night Market!" "I do," I said to one of her spots. "Well, not everythings spicy." "Look, you didnt even eat any of it and youre crying your eyes out! Let me make you one without chili peppers." "Thats all right. Im not hungry." "A young man like you should always be eating." "I should be going now." I stood up and towered over her. "Hey, before you go, c Description for Sales People Lin is the critically acclaimed author of the Robert Chow crime series, and is known for his atmospheric storytelling. A gem for armchair travellers, evoking the sounds, smells and tastes of a Taipei night market. There are not many works of English language fiction set in Taiwan, despite the large population of interested readers. Lin is a dynamic, well-connected and popular author with great social media presence. Details ISBN1616958375 Author Ed Lin Publisher Soho Press Inc Year 2017 ISBN-10 1616958375 ISBN-13 9781616958374 Format Paperback Series A Taipei Night Market Novel Language English Series Number 1 Publication Date 2017-07-25 UK Release Date 2017-07-25 Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2017-07-25 NZ Release Date 2017-07-25 US Release Date 2017-07-25 Imprint Soho Press Inc DEWEY 813.6 Audience General Pages 368 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:137634258;

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