An Yu

An Yu writes English-language fiction shaped by Beijing settings, music, and the uncertain border between ordinary life and the surreal. Ghost Music follows Song Yan, a former concert pianist who teaches children in her apartment and becomes absorbed by packages of mushrooms and the story of a vanished musician. Grove Press brought the US edition to readers in 2023, after Harvill Secker introduced the book in Britain. Yu was born and raised in Beijing, studied in New York and Paris, earned her MFA at New York University, then made her home in Hong Kong. Her earlier novel, Braised Pork, likewise uses an enigmatic discovery to open a quiet search for meaning. In Ghost Music, piano practice, family expectations, and recurring mushrooms give that search its distinctive rhythm.