The Fox Wife is Yangsze Choo’s third book following her New York Times bestseller The Night Tiger. Like past books, The Fox Wife delves into fantasy, magical realism, and historical fiction using cultural lore, literature, and mythology as a foundation for her stories. For this book, Choo uses foxes from Chinese mythology, common in East and Southeast Asian cultures.
Foxes have a dubious status in Chinese mythology. At times seen as manipulative, shape-shifting creatures using their beauty and wiles to trick humans, they are at other times worshipped and seen as a deity. Choo cleverly balances these two different perspectives in what appears to be a murder-revenge whodunnit mystery set at the turn of the 20th century in Manchuria and Japan when the Chinese imperial dynasty was on its last legs.
The book follows two main characters: Snow, a fox woman tracking the man who was responsible for her daughter’s death, and Bao, a 63-year-old detective who has had the ability to tell when people are lying since he was a child. Though the book is divided between these two characters, it’s clear that Snow is the driving narrative since her perspective is told in first person while Bao’s is told from the third.
The story starts with Snow trying to find her way out of rural northern China to track a photographer named Bektu Nikan. Two years after the death of her child, she finds out he is in the city of Dalian, where she is picked out by the head wife of a family that owns a respected medicinal shop who is seeking a caretaker for her mother-in-law.
Given the name Ah San, or Number Three, Snow gets along with the elderly woman, whom she addresses as tai furen, or Elder Mistress. Part of the reason Snow is eager to be close to this family is because she found out the young master of this house, Bohai, is an avid fan of photography, which was an emerging art form at the time. As she gets acquainted with Bohai and his friends, she is reunited with two male foxes she knows will only bring her trouble.
Meanwhile, Bao’s story opens in the city of Mukden, which lies north of Dalian. A restaurant owner has asked him to figure out the identity of a mysterious woman who was left frozen to death on the back steps of his popular restaurant. Suspecting this may be the work of foxes, the owner contacted Bao, who was known to have a special interest in foxes.
Fearing his restaurant is cursed, the owner wants to administer a spiritual service for the woman. Bao’s investigations eventually leads him to the identity, but he also finds out about a mysterious fox-like woman who enters into the stories since the past two years. Mr. Wang, a wealthy man, claims this woman is his wife and asks him to find her.
Choo uses plenty of dramatic irony as the narratives switch back and forth, and readers will see clues as to how the stories overlap from the beginning. In many ways, Snow’s narrative can be seen as the future while Bao’s narrative can be seen as the past; these two narratives will catch up with each other, all leading to a reunion and resolution of lost loves.
The Fox Wife is filled with murder, mayhem, intrigue, mystery, and drama. It is a triumphant third novel that will give fans of mythology, historical fiction, and magical realism an engrossing read. It is certainly not a disappoint for fans of The Night Tiger. Readers who enjoy reading female narratives might find it amusing to see that the observations made of the male gender from the viewpoint of a female fox in the context of early 20th century China is not so different from the modern era. Another aspect readers might appreciate is Bao’s perspective, a man who has lived a long life and sometimes wonders what is left for him other than death. This promising page-turner will embark readers on a journey they may not want to put down.
