Ghost Forest

A Novel

By: Pik-Shuen Fung

Narrated by: Pik-Shuen Fung

Length: 3 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

This “powerful” (BuzzFeed) debut about love, grief, and family welcomes you into its pages and invites you to linger, staying with you long after you’ve finished hearing the last word.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE RAKUTEN KOBO EMERGING WRITER PRIZE • “Quietly moving . . . connected by a kind of dream logic . . . deeply felt . . . There is joy and tenderness in . . . Fung’s elegant storytelling.”—The New York Times Book Review

How do you grieve, if your family doesn’t talk about feelings?

This is the question the unnamed protagonist of GhostForest considers after her father dies. One of the many Hong Kong “astronaut” fathers, he stays there to work, while the rest of the family immigrated to Canada before the 1997 Handover, when the British returned sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.

As she revisits memories of her father through the years, she struggles with unresolved questions and misunderstandings. Turning to her mother and grandmother for answers, she discovers her own life refracted brightly in theirs.

Buoyant and heartbreaking, Ghost Forest is a slim novel that envelops the reader in joy and sorrow. Fung writes with a poetic and haunting voice, layering detail and abstraction, weaving memory and oral history to paint a moving portrait of a Chinese-Canadian astronaut family.

“Ghost Forest is the tender/funny book we can all appreciate after a hellish year.”—Literary Hub

©2021 Pik-Shuen Fung (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"This is the book I’m excited about.... It’s about grief but it’s...light as a feather, and it has to do with how it’s arranged on the page. It’s almost like reading poetry but it’s a novel.... The words are beautiful, the writing is gorgeous, but just the way the book is laid out feels extremely refreshing.” (Ann Patchett)

“Made by an artist who angles her mirror to make room for the faces of others, Pik-Shuen Fung’s Ghost Forest resembles a xieyi painting, a place where white space and absence are as important as color and life. At once an elegy to all that’s been lost between countries, languages, and generations, and a quietly urgent call to love what we have. Inventive, funny, and devastating.” (Jennifer Tseng, award-winning author of Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness)

“Ghost Forest is a debut certain to turn your heart. With a dexterity and style all her own, Pik-Shuen Fung renders the many voices that make up a family, as well as the mythologies we create for those we know, and those we wish we knew better. I am madly in love with this book, a kaleidoscopic wonder.” (T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls)

Listen

Superb book, beautifully read. I listened and read hard copy. Wonderful to do both. excellent

Achingly Beautiful

This is a beautiful novel that reads like a memoir. While the details are very particular to the narrator’s experience as a member of a Hong Kong Chinese “Astronaut Family” - the experiences and relationships are universal. The story of the love of a daughter for her stoic and reserved father is very reminiscent of my relationship with my dad - and brought me to tears. Pik-Shuen Fung’s poetic and gorgeously rendered prose creates a genuine and beautiful portrayal of family life and love. And hearing her read the words adds depth to the story - all the more because she can bring life and tone to Chinese words and phrases that would escape non-Cantonese speakers. I listened to the audio version and then read the words on the page - and loved both versions. I highly recommend this book.