Linghun - by Ai Jiang (Paperback)

About the Book

From acclaimed author Ai Jiang, follow Wenqi, Liam, and Mrs. to the mysterious town of HOME, a place where the dead live again as spirits, conjured by the grief-sick population that refuses to let go.

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE NEBULA AND BRAM STOKER AWARD FOR BEST NOVELLA/LONG FICTION!

From acclaimed author Ai Jiang, follow Wenqi, Liam, and Mrs. to the mysterious town of HOME, a place where the dead live again as spirits, conjured by the grief-sick population that refuses to let go. This edition includes a foreword by Yi Izzy Yu, Translator of The Shadow Book of Ji Yun, the essay "A Ramble on Di Fu Ling & Death" by the author, and two bonus short stories from Jiang: "Yǒngshí" and "Teeter Totter."

Review Quotes

"Ai Jiang's Linghun is the ache that follows after every funeral, when the mourners are gone and nothing is left but the haunting of memories. A ruthlessly precise meditation on what grief does to the heart, Linghun is a must-read if you enjoy crying your way through every chapter of a book."

-Cassandra Khaw, USA Today bestselling author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth

"A devastating parable of loss, Ai Jiang's Linghun is a meditation on grief, how it changes us, makes ghost of the living, and keeps us trapped in prisons of mourning. It's a testament to Jiang's ferocity as a lyricist of sorrow and heartbreak that I read this book in one sitting and expect it will haunt me for a very, very long time to come. Truly remarkable."

-Kealan Patrick Burke, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Kin and Sour Candy

"Ai Jiang probes the very notion of ghosts to offer us something far more haunting: it is the living who we should fear the most, where the boundless parameters of our own grief lay down the blueprint for an altogether new Hill House to inhabit."

-Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters

"The neighborhood in Linghun is a twisted-neck demon, forever looking backward at the ghosts and ghosts-to-be. Ai Jiang builds an altar of the flawed living and the perfect dead with an unflinching eye for death-cloaked domestic tragedy. A haunting, brilliant debut."

-Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth

"A somber but beautiful story about grief and the pain of memory. The ghosts stay with us long after Ai Jiang's Linghun is over, but they remind us of the gift we have that is to be alive."

-Cynthia Pelayo, Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of Children of Chicago

"Mother believes the dead deserve our full attention-Linghun asks us whether that's at the expense of the living. A dark, wise, and heartbreaking examination of grief and yearning, family and agency."

-Premee Mohamed, Nebula Award-winning author of the Beneath the Rise trilogy

"Ai Jiang's debut novella Linghun packs an absolute punch. A reflection on grief, the dangers of not letting go, on the terrible price of love-and why we're so willing to pay for it. Wonderful, strange, and heartbreaking. Highly recommended."

-Angela Slatter, award-winning author of The Path of Thorns

"Linghun will forever wander like a ghost in the halls of my reader's heart, its message of grief and loss lingers, the beauty of Ai Jiang's prose a treasured new voice. What a haunting debut."

-Sadie Hartmann, Bram Stoker Award-nominated editor, and author of 101 Books to Read Before You're Murdered

"Eerie and palpable, with unrequited longing, Linghun is a quiet tour de force, a diasporic ghost story of half-life, family, and deferred dreams. Ai Jiang's writing is fiercely evocative and resounds with meaning and clarity. Linghun is a tale that lingers."

-Lee Murray, four-time Bram Stoker Award-winner and author of Tortured Willows

"Ai Jiang's Linghun is unlike any Gothic tale I have encountered before. It is an incredibly intricate and layered study of how loss permeates our lives and who we are. Brilliant and thoughtfully realized, Linghun and the people of 'HOME' have my heart and will haunt me for years to come."

-Suzan Palumbo, Nebula Award finalist