Choo has written a sumptuous garden maze of a novel that immerses readers
in a complex, vanished world. --Kirkus(starred review) Quick-witted,
ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a
dancehall girl to help pay off her mother's Mahjong debts. But when one of
her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin
may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old
houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master's
dying wish: that Ren find the man's finger, lost years ago in an accident,
and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master's soul
will wander the earth forever. As the days tick relentlessly by, a series
of unexplained deaths wracks the district, along with whispers of men who
turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren's increasingly dangerous paths crisscross
through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes.
Yangsze Choo's The Night Tigerpulls us into a world of servants and
masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and
forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the
intimate coming of age of a child and a young woman, each searching for
their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible.