Ghost Forest by  Pik-Shuen Fung

Ghost Forest

Pik-Shuen Fung

This is the story of a family who leave Hong Kong, before it was handed back to China, to settle in Vancouver. Its focus is the daughter's meditation on the death of her father and about what she learns about the rest of her family in that process. It is neither morbid, nor depressing, but instead a straightforward account of family cohesiveness. A simple tale but with great resonance.

Extract

I closed my eyes, imaging each piano note as a fruit flavoured hard candy, drifting out of the speaker and floating around the room - cherry red, apple green, berry blue and lemon yellow - dancing, hovering, from time to time flashing in the sun, and falling, falling to the ground one after another, clinking here and there in the bright light of the morning.

Parallels
  • Notes on Grief by Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
  • Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
  • How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn