Format: audiobook ~ Narrator: Vera Chok
Content: 3 stars ~ Narration: 4.5 stars

Song Yan lives in Beijing with her husband, Bowen, and her mother-in-law. She could have been a concert pianist, but she left music college. Now, Song Yan is a piano teacher. She is not particularly happy because her husband is often absent, and she doesn’t get along with her mother-in-law.

I wanted to read this novel for a while now. But it looks like my expectations were too high. First thing, Son Yan is very passive. This could be fine, but the story seemed to unfold with no real purpose.

I often read literary fiction, Asian authors, and I love a really good surreal novel, but this one was only ok. It is one of those novels I will quickly forget because I didn’t see the real meaning.

Thanks to Recorded Books for the ALC and this opportunity! This is a voluntary review and all opinions are my own.

Who knew that the combination of mushrooms and music could make for such an enchating, weird and wonderful novel? (or in my case audiobook).

Song Yan, a piano teacher, lives in Beijing with her husband and her mother-in-law, when mushrooms start randonly apearing at her door, which eventually leads her to the discovery of the famous pianist Bai Yu who disappeared 10 years ago. Lost in a unfilled life as she gave up her career as a concert pianist, her husband refuses to have children and her mother in law pushes for grandchildren, Song Yan spirals out of control and starts seeing mushrooms that can talk. I wasn't able to stop listening to this book as I relate most messy and unhinged characters haha!

Ghost Music is a novel like no other about self-discovery, grief, motherhood and identity - its melody is somehow slow, painful and soothing all at the same time. With all the questions, and no answer, It's perfect for anyone, who like me, feels like the world is absolute chaos and is no further in understanding its meaning.

Overall, this book reminded me of one of those surreal dreams you have where weird things happen that just somehow make sense (like mushrooms coming to life and appearing everywhere) and I really enjoyed it. As one of my first reads on China, Ghost Music also gives an insight into chinese (food) culture, tradition and expections. If you are a fan of mushrooms, then this novel might just make you hungry. My only criticism would be that I wanted more and was left with lots of questions about what happens to the main character!!

Thank you Netgalley for this free copy of Ghost Music by An Yu.

#GhostMusic #NetGalley

I thought this was quite an odd little novel. I couldn't actually tell who was real and who was a ghost. The writer's prose is atmospheric and will suck you in. The story, however, was strange. Song Yan has lived in Beijing for the past 3 years with her emotionally absent husband, Bowen. She teaches piano in instead of becoming a concert pianist, like prodigy, Bai Yu. Her mother-in-law moves in w/ the couple as she has lost her husband. Song Yan starts to find out all these things about Bowen that he never told her. Nothing as mundane as an affair. However, he did have a prior wife, which he left when she had his son. He never told his mother he had a son, nor Song Yan. In fact, he keeps putting off children to the annoyance of his mother and Song Yan. According to his mother, he also had a sister, but they couldn't keep her because they were so poor. This may account for Bowen's workaholic tendencies.
Song Yan and her mother-in-law start to receive deliveries of mushrooms from the Yunnan peninsula, which is where the mother-in-law is from. After the deliveries stop, Song Yan receives a letter from the famous (and reclusive) Bai Yu, as the sender of the mushrooms. Therein follows a strange existential relationship.
Honestly, although, I enjoyed the story, I was kind of thinking what's the point of this? I probably wasn't the best audience for this one.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook.*

Song Yan gave up on her dreams of being a concert pianist to instead teach piano to young students in her and her husband’s Beijing apartment. She’d like to have a child, especially since her mother-in-law now lives with them and expects her to, but her husband refuses. As tensions rise in the household, Song Yan begins to have strange dreams of an orange mushroom; soon after, parcels of mushrooms begin to arrive weekly at their home from an unknown sender. What do her dreams, the packages of mushrooms, and a missing pianist have in common?

This was an odd read – surreal and weird. I enjoyed how drifting the plot was, and how it explored some very concrete and mundane things but was still interspersed with odd lucid dreams of a talking mushroom. It was interesting to see the character’s narration devolve from being completely grounded in reality to shifting pretty solidly into dreams and/or illusions. The author’s lovely writing style aided in making these moments weave together into a somewhat cohesive read.

I wanted to enjoy this work more, but I think it was too esoteric for me. If I can be completely honest, I have no idea what happened or what the ending meant – or was it supposed to mean anything? I’m not sure. The characters felt detached from the story overall, in a way that left them feeling a little bland. The relationship between Song Yan and her mother-in-law was a focus at the beginning, but it drifted into the background partway through the book, which left me wanting more from this subplot.

I still recommend this short read, especially if you enjoy esoteric or surreal stories. I think I’m going to have to give it another read in the future to see if I can figure out what’s going on with this one. My thanks to NetGalley and RB Media for allowing me to read and review this work, which will be published in January 2023.

This book washes over you like a wave on a beach, leaving you altered for a moment, but not in a way that will last. The story meanders along, drifting from one point to the next without any real direction. I listened to the audiobook, and that was a pleasant listen. The narrator's voice lends itself to the floaty feeling of the story.

I'd like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced listener copy of this book.

The opening chapter begins with the main character having a conversation with a mushroom. The description indicated that this was a surreal type of book so I thought I'd just "go with it".

Really ... this book just wasn't for me.

I listened to the advance release of the audiobook. The husband of the main character (Bowan) and another main male character (Bai Yu) sounded very similar to me; I kept them straight, but it took more effort on my part than it was worth.

I did finish listening, but it was just kind of weird. I did like the first half of the book much better than the second half.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, narrator and publisher as well.

Song Yan’s husband has been keeping things from her, and she doesn’t want to rock the boat and ask. His mother has moved in with them, and she wants grandchildren. Song also wants a child, but her husband keeps putting her off.

Song Yan has her own baggage too. She is a trained concert pianist who has lost some love for the art. She now uses her training to teach young people how to play the piano.

A series of mysterious packages (of mushrooms) leads her to a journey of self reflection.

I struggle to categorize this book. It has strange dreams with a talking mushrooms, journey of self discovery, and some elements of the paranormal. I think it may be because I’m used to western themes, and this may be written in an eastern storytelling method. Either way, this book kept catching me off guard, and I liked it!

Similar to books like “The Shining,” this book makes a point of the repetitive nature of Song Yan’s life by going through the same things over and over. Throughout, I was rooting for her, but I was also like “hey lady, you need more than this!!”

I would recommend if you’re interested in a domestic story with a mysterious element. This book will surprise you!!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Sometimes when I read contemporary books, I find them hard to believe: the lives of the characters are a little bit too polished, all the mundane stuff skipped or made a little too interesting. But “Ghost Music”, despite being a literary fiction with supernatural elements, felt so, so real to me.

The story follows Song Yan, a young piano teacher from Beijing, as she deals with unwanted life changes: her mother-in-law moves in to live with them, secrets from her husbands’ past start rising up and strange parcels are being left at her apartment. To top it all off, Song Yan begins having unusually vivid dreams about a talking mushroom-like entity – what could be the meaning behind it?..

In essence, this book is a one-woman-story: we, as readers, follow Song Yan through her daily life trials and tribulations, simple joys and forgettable moments. Even by the end of the book we are left with questions unanswered, the story unfinished - unfinished in the sense that lives keep on going as surely as a new day starts after the night ends. This somewhat open ending fit the book perfectly, as I feel like over-explaining it would have taken from the magic and mundanity of it all.

“Ghost Music” audiobook was a perfect companion on my commute through the snow covered city; from classical music references to descriptions of street food, it was a way to enrich my own mundane life.

First of all, this cover is beautiful. I loved the idea of this book but didn't connect with it the way I hoped.

Song Yan is a former concert pianist who gave up her aspirations for a stagnant marriage. Listening to this as an audiobook gave me that general sense of unease that I enjoy in books. The way she focused on the small details of Songs' life made it all blur together almost. I loved the bizarre parts with sentient mushrooms and wish there had been more of that. The author did a good job of straddling the line between reality and dream. The tension in this book felt high throughout and very slow paced. The fact that it was a short listen helped.

Overall, this had some really neat existential themes and I loved that. I didn't connect much with Song or any other characters, I don't think we are supposed to, though, and I enjoyed it. Liked but not loved, would recommend to a specific type of person but this one isn't for everybody.

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio ARC.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

A woman in Beijing gives up her promising career as a concert pianist to start a family with an annoying guy who finds his job more important than her, who treats her badly, makes his mother move in with them, doesn't want to have childrenand has been keeping important secrets about his past. The woman is annoyingly passive about all of this even though she is deeply affected by it. During this time, strange things start happening to her, mostly to do with mushrooms (dreams with speaking mushrooms, mysterious mushroom deliveries).
And then there is a piano prodigy, presumed long dead, who gets in touch with her.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as interesting as it may sound and I grew less convinced as the story progressed. I didn't feel in safe hands. I do not mind a surreal story now and again or even supernatural elements, and (without wanting to generalise) I often find Asian novelists particularly good at credibly integrating bizarre elements, but here their function was unclear to me.

One day, a package of rare mushrooms is delivered to the doorsteps of the Beijing apartment where Song Yan lives with her husband. The sender is unknown, but the mushrooms came from Yunnan province, and Song Yan's visiting mother-in-law immediately decides to cook them. They were his son's favorites when he was a boy and lived in Yunnan.

As strange as it sounds, at the same time, Song Yan discovers another kind of mushroom – a peculiar, orange creature that talks to her, asks questions, and in a way, starts pushing Song You toward finding what life means for her and what she wants to do. She was trained as a classical pianist hoping to become a concert protégé, but it didn't happen, primarily because of her psychological barriers. Now she gives piano lessons; her distant husband Bowen is an executive at the car manufacturing company.

The novel moves between the reality of Song Yan's everyday life and the strange world of the orange mushroom. I was reminded of the magical world of Alice in Wonderland, where the Caterpillar told her that eating one side of the mushroom would make her smaller and another side would make her taller. Similarly, the dreamlike mushroom in Song Yan's world moves her between what she knows now and what she wants to know. There are secrets in her husband's life that make her uncomfortable, but there is no communication in her marriage. For Song Yan, the only refuge is music. Eventually, she learns who was sending the packages and meets her ideal musical genius - an older man who used to be a world-known pianist. Now, close to his death, unable and unwilling to play, he becomes her teacher in understanding music and life - not by showing her how to play but by listening to her play and discovering her authentic sound

It's a mesmerizing book that can take a reader from the streets of Beijing, with all its noises and smells, filled with people rushing about to the quietness of Song's room. Of course, other books have been written about the loneliness of women (for example, the recent novel by Mieko Kawakami comes to my mind), loss, grief, and ways of coming to terms with it, but the poetry and slow calmness of this novel are spellbinding. It can also be challenging, especially when the book's flow seems slow and meandering. In the end, I  hoped Song Yan would become free and confident, but honestly, I wasn't convinced she did.

I absolutely loved An Yu's Ghost Music. It feels like a fever dream, I wasn't sure which parts of the story I should believe as "real" and which were just fantasy, just like it happens to the main character. I enjoyed the family drama, the secrets they all kept, the things they didn't say. I also really liked the way mushrooms are incorporated into the story, like a thread that brings family and music together, just like they do in nature. The narration was fantastic too, I need to listen to other books narrated by Vera Chok. Just an incredible book.

The best part about literary fiction is it's writing style. The book has simple story but the writing needs an award! It's beautiful to see that the simplest struggles of life, marriage and passion can be constructed together in such a way to enjoy the book.

Personally I found alot of the parts relatable, the break in your career, nagging relations, introvert personality and an inner pursuit to get your career back on track. It also talks a lot around the meaning of one's life, making me question are we really living?

In a simplest way I would describe it as a symphony of Mushrooms 🍄 and Piano 🎹
It was a soothing reading and considering I don't even eat mushrooms, I still found the story sweet. But I do feel this book is very audience specific and not everyone will be able to vibe with it.

Thankyou @netgalley @grooveatlantic @recordedbooks and @anyuwrites for the Digital ARC

Genre: #literaryfiction
Rating: 4/5 ⭐

3 ¼ stars

“Solitude is tolerable, even enjoyable at times. But when you realise that you’ve given your life to someone, yet you know nothing but his name? That kind of solitude is loneliness. That’s what kills you.”


Not having had the best experience with An Yu’s Braised Pork I was intrigued but wary of this second novel of hers. Similarly to Braised Pork, Ghost Music is a sparsely written surreal tale that manages to explore weird and existentialist avenues while also remaining tethered to the daily minutiae comprising the main character’s every-day life (preparing meals, eating, etc). The narrative is characterized by a murkiness that obfuscates our understanding of the events and experiences that are being recounted, the line between reality and dreams becomes increasingly blurry so we soon find ourselves struggling to differentiate between what is real and what is an illusion. I won’t lie and write that I understood what was going on in this book, because I did not. While reading Ghost Music my eyebrows were fixed in a perpetual perplexed frown. Yet, those elements and scenes that mystified and confused me were also the ones that intrigued me. Silences, ghosts (figurative and non), music, and pasts that haunt, are the motifs running throughout Ghost Music. The narrative’s juxtaposition between the bizarre and the mundane brought to mind David Lynch and the work of Hiroko Oyamada. The dreamy atmosphere, the off-beat, and sometimes absurd, character interactions, as well as the fantastical ‘ghost’ storyline, resulting in a unique reading experience that is guaranteed to confuse and confound you.

“Loss came in all shapes and forms, but it hadn’t occurred to me until now that you could lose the things you never had.”


Our narrator is Song Yan, once a promising concert pianist, and now a piano tutor to young kids. She and her workaholic husband live together in a flat in Beijing. Bowen is remote, distracted, and quick to shut down any conversations about the possibility of children.
Bowen's widowed mother, who is from the province of Yunnan, later joins them. Soon after they begin receiving parcels of mushrooms native to Yunnan. Song Yan and her mother-in-law form a tentative bond by cooking these together. Tensions rise when Song Yan’s mother-in-law begins to blame her for her lack of children. Song Yan receives a letter that leads her to Bai Yu, a renowned pianist who disappeared years before, and here the story becomes even more fantastical. Song Yan also learns more about Bowen's past, and this widens the rift between them.
Another bizarre addition to Song Yan’s life is a recurrent dream involving a ghostly mushroom that may be trying to reveal something vital to her.

“I’d always known that I was on my own, that I existed as a person separate from others, but to accept that fact—to walk a solitary path without fear—took a whole other kind of bravery.”


As I said before, I did not really understand a lot of what was happening (why it was happening, how it was happening, what it would lead to). Still, there was something about the dreamlike quality of Song Yan’s experiences that held my interest. I was both drawn to and weirded out by the bizarre elements and aspects of her story. While the narrative does tackle familiar themes such as grief, trauma, and memory, it does so in an unfamiliar, uncanny even, way. I was unsure of where Song Yan’s story would lead her, and that was part of the appeal to me. This uncertainty and not-knowing what was real or not, and the direction of her story. The tone retains this detachedness that makes it hard to come to know the characters, but again, this is what ultimately made them interesting to me. Bowen is a particularly frustrating character, especially in how cold he is towards Song Yan. Yet, I also felt a modicum of sympathy towards him, when we learn more about his past. Bowen's mother loses importance after the mid-way mark, which is a pity as I thought that the friction between her and Song Yan had potential. Still, I liked how Yu explored Song Yan's loneliness, her sadness, and her melancholy. I also appreciated the different types of silences depicted in her narrative and their effects (on a person's wellbeing, on a relationship, on someone's impression of another person).

The characters' opaqueness and obliqueness really fit with the surreal themes and imagery that are underlining Song Yan’s narrative. I will definitely give this a re-read and hopefully, that will enable me to understand wtf was going on more. Nevertheless, I was still able to like Ghost Music, in particular the contemplative nature and dreamlike quality of Song Yan's narration.

“He made me see true simple fact that we are not tied down to this world; we are in pursuit of it.”

This book, a blend of magical realism and literary horror, left me with many questions… but much like the main character by the end, I felt okay with the not knowing. I’ve found over the last few years that I really the occasional bizarre book that involves a gradual descent into madness or existential breakdown, and this book fits well into that category.

There is not a lot of action; instead the main character travels along a path of self-reflection, where we don’t always know what is reality and what is part of her surreal fever-dream-esque fantasy life. Readers may leave the story asking themselves what they just read, and for me that feeling is perplexing and enjoyable! And those are often the stories that I continue to think about long after they’re over.

I think that the audience may be a sort of niche one for this type of book, but if you’re into stifling environments and slow descents into madness (like The Death of Jane Lawrence or Our Wives Under the Sea), you may enjoy it as much as I did!

Thank you to Netgalley and RB Media for this Audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the experience but let's be honest it was bizarre and all over the place. Sure it was mesmerizing but at the same time so confusing. We have different theme from family drama, to genius pianists losing it, trauma, grief, missed opportunities, haunting pasts, regrets and talking to mushrooms.

I wanted to read Yu's Braised Pork but then I found this audiobook on Netgalley and decided to start with this one in order to discover this author's writing style. I have to say that I liked her style, from the start of the story you are kept intrigued by the plot, it's atmospheric and surreal. There is a struggle between what is made reality and what is an illusion confusing our minds while listening to the character's narrative.

Bowen's mother arrival to live with the couple is a catalyst of the events that are to come and it will shatter the facade of this calm life that Song Yan and Bowen are hiding behind in order to unravel the truth.

At the end, I can say that we have a certain conclusion without any conclusions for that's how I felt. Ghost Music might be an odd book for a lot of readers but it seems that this is Yu's style and I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone. Also,I can't say that I understood all what the author aimed to pass through her story but if I may say, I just got what I needed to have an idea about An Yu. I might read her novel ' Braised Pork' in the future.

Dream-like and surreal, this is the kind of story I find myself becoming entranced with, straight away. While there is a “magical” quality to the story, it is also so grounded in sparse language and day-to-day life, however mundane. This writing style, I find, always lends itself well to the exploration of bigger themes… ones that are often familiar, universally. Ghost Music by An Yu is a solid four stars, absolutely, and one that I would love to reread {physically} as I think it would add to my experience and perhaps bring it closer to a five.

“Human, ghost or god—

what difference does it make if you can hardly remember what you were in the first place.”

Loneliness, motherhood, marital relationships, identity and fulfillment, and career are all, expertly, explored in this short novel. Even if you find yourself confused or unsure of where reality meets the surreal, the message makes it through. Which also speaks to the universality of the themes. Despite the striped back prose and the unreal happenings, I find that you gain a sense of who these characters are and how nuanced they are, in relationship to each other and even themselves. I felt so deeply for Song, and the ways in which she is confronted with loneliness and dissatisfaction, born from her efforts to do the “right” thing. I think we have all been there, and for women of my generation {and earlier} specifically it will resonate deeply. Song has given up her career {and dream} as a concert pianist, and is ignored by her husband when she desires a child to love. She is dissatisfied but understanding, sad but hopeful, and as a the novel progresses… as her life progresses… it is hard and harder for her to withstand her lack of fulfillment. I love that while she is at a loss, in life, and feels the isolation of life, your can tell she still has a passion for what was and what could be. I really loved her and wanted all the good things for her.

I found the dynamic between Song and her mother-in-law to be particularly fascinating. Sometimes you want to slap her mother-in-law, for her cruelty and dismissive tone, but you also see that there is much brewing beneath her cold, calculating exterior and that she is a nuanced human being as well. Understanding this doesn’t mean condoning her actions, but it makes her feel real.

I read this via audiobook and quite enjoyed it. I’ve read other “strange” books through audiobooks in the past {Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin or Pure Color by Sheila Heti come to mind} and I always love the way a story like this washes over you through this medium. I enjoyed the narrator, Vera Chok, very much. Her voice suits the story so well. It’s out January 10, 2023 and I highly recommend this one, especially if strange, philosophical books are your thing. The audiobook is great and was a wonderful listen for my daily walks.

+ Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of the audiobook version of Ghost Music, from RB Media {Recorded Books}. I was so excited for this one and it did not disappoint!

First of all, I am so thankful to An Yu, Grove Press, Recorded Books Media, and Netgalley for granting me Advanced Listener Access to Ghost Music by An Yu before its publication date of January 10, 2023.

Song Yan is a former concert pianist and gave up that glamourous life to settle down with her husband, Bowlen. After three years of marriage, his ill mother moves in with them and puts pressure on her daughter-in-law to give her a grandchild before she passes, which is almost verbatim what she said. (eye-roll) Song Yan isn't the raging feminist that I am, so she agrees with her mother-in-law and begins to bring up baby feelers with her husband. We soon discover that he doesn't want to have children but instead wants to focus on himself. After a bit of time, we also see that he isn't much infatuated with his life either; they share a rather odd relationship.

In the meantime, in between piano lessons, Song Yan begins to have conversations with a set of orange mushrooms, which aren't mushrooms at all, but perhaps the ghost of someone very important, like a famous musician. With time, Song Yan grows a companionship with this spirit and learns to love and expand within her own identity.

This is a mystical and magical tale of things that don't have an explanation but can teach a lesson greater than any on earth.

Ghost Music is surreal and haunting in the best ways. Yu's writing is beautiful. I just know this book will stick with me for a long time. I highly recommend it!

4.5/5