Marrow

Начало книги

Fae Myenne Ng’s debut novel, Bone, anticipates with uncanny foresight some of the central themes of Yan Lianke’s Marrow. Published in 1993, Bone describes a family of three girls from San Francisco’s Chinatown. The family includes the protagonist, Leila, and her two younger half-sisters, Ona and Nina, and the book opens with Ona having recently committed suicide by jumping off a building. Her family struggles to respond to this loss, agonising over how they may each have contributed to it. Ona’s father, Leon Leong, originally came to the United States as a ‘paper son’ – someone who pretends to be another man’s son for immigration purposes. Leon promised his ‘paper’ father, Grandpa Leong, that he would return the older man’s bones to China after his death, but Leon happened to be away at sea when the older man died. Consequently, Grandpa Leong’s remains ended up buried in San Francisco, and Leon never managed to have the bones repatriated. After Ona’s suicide, Leon becomes even more distressed by his failure to send the bones back; he thinks that he ‘gave those bones power, [and] believed that they were the bad luck that stirred Ona’s destiny.’

Читать дальше →