The Funeral Cryer

 I picked up The Funeral Cryer at the library today and started reading it and I could not put it down. I read it in one sitting. The author is Wenyan Lu. The story is set in modern times in a small village in northern China. This town is so far north that having a bamboo forest near the village is very unusual because bamboo doesn't grow this far north. The story is told by by a woman who is struggling. She is married to a worthless chap who doesn't work and doesn't even try to work. Jobs are scarce. Her 20 year old daughter left the village to find work in Shanghai. The woman grows vegetables in her back yard and does all the housework. Her husband leaves the house to gamble with his friends. When he is home he is frequently verbally abusive. She gets some work as a funeral cryer. Families hire her to attend the funeral and cry over the casket giving details of the deceased person's accomplishments. The people in the village assume her job brings bad luck so they avoid her. A barber has moved into the town and he starts paying attention to her. This gives her a new confidence. She stops listening to her husband and starts taking pride in her accomplishments. I enjoyed the story because of the plot but also because the descriptions of the pork and chive dumplings and tofu and stir fry sounded so delicious.