The Fox Wife

This novel by Yangsze Choo defies genre definition. Booklist offers this summary and recommendation: "In early 1900s Manchuria, aging detective Bao is enlisted to uncover the identity of a courtesan found frozen in a doorway. Superstitious locals claim she was lured to her death by a fox in human form. The case has special significance for Bao, who has unofficially investigated rumors about foxes since a childhood visit to a shrine that may have resulted in the gift of telling truth from lies. Elsewhere, a mysterious woman named Snow joins the household of a family whose eldest sons seem fated to die before age 24. Unbeknownst to the family, Snow has come to town with ulterior motives--she's seeking revenge for the death of her daughter. These two seemingly disparate stories soon converge as Snow and Bao seek the same man, and people from their pasts reemerge in surprising ways. Equal parts detective story, folktale, and family saga, the highly anticipated latest novel by Choo ...will appeal to fans of diverse, imaginative literary fiction, historical mysteries ..., and fantasy ..."

Publishers Weekly closes their review by saying "Choo's writing is lush and the slow revelation of complicated relationships and reunions hum with tension. This is a treat." I agree with their assessment that the writing is lovely and that this is a very slow burn. I initially found the switching of narrators in alternating chapters to be distracting. This is a common storyline structure but in this case the timelines of the the two narrators do not synch up until later in the book. 

Kirkus offers this summary and review: " The rich Asian tradition of fox folklore provides the backdrop for Choo’s complex and atmospheric tale of identity and discovery set in early 1900s Manchuria. Snow (later also referred to as Ah San) narrates the story of her search for a shadowy figure—the photographer Bektu Nikan—during the waning days of the Qing dynasty. She crosses Manchuria and travels to Japan in her efforts to locate the man she believes is responsible for the death of her very young daughter. Snow’s slow reveal of her trek and travails is often whimsical or wry and is particularly informative about the habits and practices of the shape-shifting foxes who are believed to appear in human form. Quite reasonably, this knowledge is derived from Snow’s own experiences…as a fox. Running on an eventual collision course is the slowly evolving story of a private investigator, the aging Bao, whose initial assignment is to determine the identity of a woman whose body was found frozen and dead outside a restaurant. As he follows the scant clues in that case, he becomes more and more enmeshed in circumstances that lead him into the orbit of Snow and her growing posse of humans and foxes. (Events in Bao’s early childhood have encouraged his belief in the presence of human-seeming foxes and have also left him with the personally and professionally helpful ability to discern when a lie is being told.) As the circuitous and alternating stories unfold and begin to converge, coincidence and historical events play out. Snow’s difficulties as both a fox and a young woman in a man’s world are clearly drawn, as is the pathos of Bao’s situation as a gentle soul who’s always been in search of something or someone.An intriguing vulpine mystery worth the suspension of disbelief."