The Ghost Bride

Now a Netflix Mandarin original drama premiering January 2020 Yangsze Choo’s stunning debut, The Ghost Bride , is a startlingly original novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and unexpected supernatural twists. Though ruled by industrial-age British overlords, the Chinese of Malaysia continue to adhere to ancient customs and beliefs. Even in the declining port city of Malacca, a gateway welcoming diverse cultures from around the world, ghosts and superstitions abound. The daughter of a respectable merchant family that has lost its fortune, Li Lan has little chance to procure an advantageous marriage. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the Lim family, the city’s wealthiest and most powerful clan. They want her to become a “ghost bride” for the family’s son, Lim Tian Ching, who died under mysterious circumstances. A rare historic custom amongst Malaysian Chinese, a spirit marriage is used to placate a restless ghost. While such a union would guarantee Li Lan a home, it may the cost the young woman her soul. To save herself, Li Lan must plunge into a shadowy parallel world of the Chinese afterlife, navigating its hungry ghosts, haunted mansions, and not-quite-human guardians—including the mysterious Er Lang, a handsome guardian spirit. With Er Lang’s help, Li Lan will uncover the Lim family’s darkest secrets, and the truth about her own family’s history. But will she be able to return to the world of the living? And will she be content with life in the human world again? Reminiscent of Lisa See’s Peony in Love and Sarah Waters’ The Little Stranger, vividly imaginative and told in luminous prose, The Ghost Bride is a gripping literary ghost novel infused with Chinese folklore, romantic intrigue, and fascinating supernatural twists. Brimming with mystery, romance, and the supernatural, it heralds the arrival of a masterful new talent.